r ■ '■.'-■■-■■■:] : -'^ 



■vti*^- J^ 




ELMEII C.MICE, 




Class 4^X_:i6x_ 
Copyright N" 1 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




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^ 



Elmer C. Rice. 



THE 



National Standard 
Squab Book. 



A PRACTICAL MANUAL GIVING COMPLETE AND PRECISE DIRECTIONS 

FOR THE INSTALLATION AND MANAGEMENT OF 

A SUCCESSFUL SQUAB PLANT. 

HOW TO MAKE A PIGEON AND SqiTAB BUSINESS PAY. DETAILS OF 
BUILDING, BUYING, HABITS OF BIRDS, MATING, WATER- 
ING, FEEDING, KILLING, COOLING, MARKETING, 
SHIPPING, CURING AILMENTS, ETC. 

By ELMER C. RICE. ■ . 



Illustrated with New Sketches, and Half Tone Plates from 
Photographs Specially Made for this Work. 




BOSTON, MASS. 
1906. 



[LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 
MAK 27 '906 

Copyright Entry 
CUSS CL^ xk^. No 
^ COPY B. 



Copyright, 1902, By Elmer C. Rice. 
Copyright, 1903, By Elmer C. Rice. 
Copyright, 1904, By Elmer C. Rice. 
Copyright, 1905, By Elmer C. Rice. 
Copyright, 1906, Bv Elmer C. Rice. 



All riglits re.served. 







A Well-Built Nest. 



preface. 

This Manual or Handbook on squabs is written to teach people, begin- 
ners mostly, not merely how to raise squabs, but how to conduct a squab 
and pigeon business successfully. We have found breeders of squabs who 
knew how to raise them fairly well and took pleasure in doing so, but 
were weak on the business end of the industry. The fancier, who raises 
animals because he likes their looks or their actions, or because he hopes 
to beat some other fancier at an exhibition, is not the man for whom we 
have written this book. We have developed Homer pigeons and the 
Homer pigeon industry solely because they are staples, and the squabs 
they produce are staples, salable in any market at a remunerative price. 
The success of squabs as we exploit them depentls on their earuiug capac- 
ity. They are a matter of business. Our development of squabs is based 
on the fact that they are good eating, that people now are in the habit of 
askiug for and eating them, that there is a large traffic in them which may 
be pushed to au enormous extent without weakening either the market or 
the price. If, as happens in this case, pigeons are a beautiul pet stock as 
well as money makers, so much the better, but we never would breed any- 
thing not useful, salable merely as pets. It is just as easy to pet a prac- 
tical animal as an impractical animal, aud much more satisfying. 

This Manual is the latest and most comprehensive work we have done, 
giving the results of our experieuce as fully and accurately as we can pre- 
sent the subject. It is intended as an answer to the hundreds of letters we 
receive, and we have tried to cover every point which a beginner or an 
«>xpert needs to know. It is a fault of writers of most guide books like 
this to leave out points which they thlak are too trivial, or "which every- 
body ought to know." It has been our experience in handling this subject 
and bringing it home to people that the little points are the ones on which 
they quickest go astray, and on which they wish the fullest information. 
After they have a fair start, they are able to thiak out their operations 
for themselves. Accordingly we have covered every point in this book in 
simple language and if the details in some places appear too common- 
place, remember that we have erred on the side of plainness. 

The customers to whom we have sold breeding stock have been of great 
help to us in arranging and presenting these facts. We asked them to 
tell us just the points they wished covered, or covered more fully, or just 
where our writings were weak. They replied in a most kindly way, nearly 
every letter thanking us heartily, and brimming over with enthusiasm for 
the squab industry. 

It has surprised a great many people to learn that Homer pigeons are 
such a staple and workable article. They have been handled by the old 

(S) 



6 National Standard Squab Book. 

methods for years without their great utility being made plain. When we 
first learned about squabs, we were struck by the impressive fact that 
here was something which grew to market size in the incredible time of 
four weeks and then was marketed readily at a good profit. The spread 
of that knowledge will make money for you. Show your neighbors the 
birds you buy of us, and tell them the facts, and perhaps give them a 
squab to eat, then you will find a quick call for all the live breeders you 
can supply. 

The procedure which we advise in this National Standard Squab Book 
is safe and sound, demonstrated to be successful 'by hundreds of our cus- 
tomers, many of whom started with no knowledge except what we were 
able to give them by letter or word of mouth. We have abandoned all 
instruction which does not stand the test of time and locality and give 
only facts of proven value, of real, practical experience. 

ELMER C. RICE. 

Boston, August, 1902. 

POSTSCRIPT. 

This work has met with so much favor during the past year, and has 
sold so largely, in excess of expectations, that we wish to thank our 
friends everywhere for their cordial support. The Appendix A which 
appears at the back of this edition was added last February, and it is 
our intention to keep the work up to date by revisions and additions at 
least twice yearly. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the 
proof of these squab teachings is shown in the successes made by our 
thousands of customers with no other knowledge of squabs than this as 
a guide. Our correspondence, now having extended over a long period, 
shows conclusively that beginners find all questions answered in this book, 
and go forward confidently and surely to success. 

E. C. R. 

Boston, August, 1903. 



Contents. 

Page. 
Chapter I, 

Squabs Pay 9 

Chapter II. 
An Easy Start ^3 

Chapter III. 
The Unit House 27 

Chapter IV. 
The Nappies and Nests 3' 

Chapter V, 
Water and Feed . ' . 35 

Chapter VI. 

Laying and Hatching 45 

Chapter VII. 

Increase of Flock S3 

Chapter VIII. 
Killing and Cooling 57 

Chapter IX. 
The Markets . 61 

Chapter X. 
Pigeons' Ailments ........... 64 

Chapter XI. 
Getting Ahead 66 

Chapter XII. 
Questions and Answers ..... .o». . 72 




Thorough liREDs. 



•(Rational Stan^arb Squab :i6oof?. 



CHAPTER I. 
SQUABS PAY. 



Experience of a Customer who Started in January, 1902, Erected a Plant 
Worth $3,000 and Made Money Almost from the Start— Settlements 
of Squab Breeders in Iowa, California, NeAv Jersey and Pennsyl- 
vania — Large Incomes Made from Pigeons — Squab Plants Known to 
be Making Money — The Hard Working Farmer and the Easy Work- 
ing Squab Kaiser — No Occupation for a Drone — No Exaggeration. 



"Will it pay me to raise squabs?" is the first question which the be- 
ginner asks. We take the case of a man who bought a Manual in January, 
1902. His boys had kept a few pigeons but had never handled them in a 
commercial way, nor tried to make any money with them. The reading 
of the book gave him the first real light on the squa'b industry. Possibly 
he was more ready to believe because he knew from his own personal ex- 
perience that a squa'b grows to market size in four weeks and is then 
readily marketable. Anyway, he started at once to build a sqiiab house 
according to the directions given. The ground was too hard for him to 
get a pickaxe into, so he laid the foundation timbers on bricks, rushed 
the work ahead with the help of good carpenters aud sent on his order for 
breeding stock. In the course of a few weeks he ordered a second lot of 
breeders, followed by a third and a fourth, and he kept adding new build- 
ings. When spring came and the ground softened, he jacked up his first 
squab house, took out the bricks at the four corners and put in cedar 
posts. By the middle of July he had five handsome squab houses ami fly- 
ing pens, all built by skilled labor in the best possible style at a cost of at 
least $300 apiece. With his buildings and their fittings and his birds, his 
plant now (August, 1902) stands for an expenditure of between $2,000 and 
$3,000. His next move, this fall, will be to buy a farm where he can have 
more room, and which will be auxiliai'y to his present plant. 

This gentleman lives in a locality where he had to put up nice-looking 
buildings, or the neighbors would have complained. He spent probably 
three times more money on his Ijuildings than the average beginner would 
spend. He is a superintendent of a large manufacturing plant, a man of 
push and energy, and he has four young boys in his family who have 
helped with the wife and grandfather to make the venture successful. It 
has been a paying venture almost from the very start. Everything that 
we wrote about squabs as money makers came true in his case. One of 

(9) 



lo National Standard Squab Book. 

*,he sous, a lad of nineteen, came on to see us in August and told us the 
story of their success. He was after more breediug stock. He said he 
had many calls from people who wished to buy stock of him, and he was 
unable to supply all of them, but he did not intend to have money offered 
him very long without being able to pass out the birds. In other words, 
tiiey were going into squabs for all they were worth. They had not doue 
any advertising, and had not sold live breeders to any extent, but figured 
their profits solely on the sale of squabs to commission houses, and they 
were getting for them just what we said the commission men would pay. 

Now if a well-to-do superintendent, filled with no desperate idea of 
making squabs pay, can start with no experience, thi-ow out money freely 
like that and depend on his boys mostly to push the venture ahead, all 
the while attending to a very large business, then we s^y that you caa do 
it too, no matter who you are or w^here you live. 

We have a great many visitors, some coming from remote points of the 
United States. One of our visitors in the summer of 1902 was Mr. A. L. 
Furlong, from a little towa in Iowa. Mr. Furlong said to us: "Iowa is 
quite a squab-'breeding state. There are plants in Ruthven, Osage, Wal- 
lake and Estherville. The owner of a plant in Ruthven I know very well. 
He showed me his account books; he was shipping from $700 to $800 
worth of squabs last mouth. He is making a profit of $3,000 to $5,000 a 
year. He ships to the Chicago market, as do nearly all the Iowa breeders. 
He never gets less than $2.50 a dozen for his squa^bs. I am going to start 
raising squabs myself." 

Mr. Furlong left an order for one of our Manuals, having given his first 
one to his friend. He said that his friend was breeding common pigeons 
and would like to know our methods. We discarded common pigeons some 
time ago. If our Iowa friends will use Homer pigeons instead of common 
ones, they will produce a much better squab and make more money. 

We had a curious confirmatioQ of the above in August, 1902, when Mr. 
E. H. Grice, who lives in the northern part of Vermont, visited us. Mr. 
Grice had just returned from a A'isit to the West, and stopped for a while 
at Ruthven, Iowa, where he saw the plant above noted. The proprietor 
referred Mr. Grice to us and advised him to start with Homer pigeons, 
saying 'that if he were to stock up again, it would be with Homer instead 
of the common pigeons. Before leaving, Mr. Grice gave us an order for 
100 pairs of our Homers. 

The number of orders for breeding stock which we have received from 
Iowa is out of proportion to any state near it, showing that these squab 
plants are known throughout Iowa to be making money. The same is true 
of California, also Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In the country around 
MiLlville, Mauricetown and Dividing Creek, all in the southern part of 
New Jersey are hundreds of squab plants. The reason is that it has 
spread from mouth to mouth there that there is big money in raising these 
dainties. There are more squab breeders in eastern Pennsylvania and 
southern New Jersey than there are chicken breeders. We went through 



National Standard Squab Book. 



II 



that territory iu June, 1902, noting the buildiugs and metliods of the squab 
raisers there and finding out from them if they were satisfied with the 
financial returns. All were enthusiastic and said it was easy work, that 
siiuabs beat hens easily and were much less care. The methods of some 
of these breeders were extremely ci-ude, the birds nesting in old boxes of 
all sizes nailed to the walls of the .squab houses, and apparently never 
being cleaned. With no reflection on the squab raisers of Jersey, but in 
order to demonstrate our point that the work is easy, we want to say 
that the typical breeder in that country as we saw him was seated a good 
part of the time on an old soap box, in or near his squab house, smoking 
a pipe and taking life easy, with plenty of time to talk or read. Some- 
body has said that a squab plant of 1,000 pairs of birds will pay better 
than a farm. The contrast between the hard, grinding toil of the 
man who works a large farm and the "standing around" of the owner of 
a squab plant is indeed a striking one. However, we do not speak of this to 
give you the idea that money is going to flow into your lap just because 
you buy some squab breeders of us. It is no work for a drone or a "get- 
rich-quick" person whose enthusiasm runs riot for two weeks and then 
cools off. Our class of trade is men and women of experience and reliable 
common sense who have a knowledge of the world and understand that 
things come by work and not for the asking. The people who are able and 
wiilling to pay us from $50 to $500 for a breeding outfit, as hundreds do, 
are not caught by glittering promises, but have money laid by through 
exercise of the qualities of ability and shrewdness. The naturally care- 
less, improvident person, who is generally in debt, should not start squab 
raising. It is a sensible indu.stry for sensible people. 












v\ 




CHAPTER II. 
AN EASY START. 

No Special Form of Buikliug Necessary— Points to Remember— Shelter 
Adapted to the Climate — How to Use a Building Which You Now 
Have — Squab House aud Flyiug Pen — Lining the Squab House with 
Nests— Use of Egg Crates— How to I'ut Up the Perches— Difference 
Between the Nest Box, Nest Pan and Nest— How to Tell How 
Many Pigeons Can Occupy a Certain Building — A Large Flock of 
Pigeons is as Easily Cared for as a Small Flock — How to Use Your 
Time to Best Advantage. 



Do not get the idea that any special form of building is necessary to 
raise squabs. We will tell you how to put up a structure t'hat will make 
your work easier for you, and enable you to handle a big flock fast and 
accurately, but pigeons will work in almost any place, if it is free from 
rats, darkness and the musty dampness which goes with darkness. Any 
building, whether a woodshed, a com crib, a barn, an outhouse of any 
description, or even a hog pen, can be made a successful home for 
pigeons with a little work. 

The points to remember ai'e these, first, that the building be on fairly 
level, sunny ground: second, that it be raised from the ground so that 
rats cannot ibreed under it out of sight and reach; third, that it ought to 
be fairly tight, so as to keep out rain and excessive cold. Pigeons ought 
to have sunlight aud fresh air, 'ike any other animal, and need protection 
from the elements. 

In practice, therefore, most squab houses are found raised on posts a 
foot or two feet off the ground; they face the sout'h (here in New Eng- 
land) because most of our bitter weather conies from the north and east. 
If you live in a state, territory or foreign country where conditions are 
different, adapt your squab houses to th'.)se conditions. In some localities, 
the fierce weather comes from the South and West, in which case your 
squab house should J'ace the North or East. 

Here in New England we build a tight house to withstand the cold 
winters, but in the South the buildings are more open. Be guided by 
what you see around you in the place where you live. If the houses used 
by your friends and neighbors for hens and chickens are tight and warm, 
make your squab house tiirht and warm. It would be foolish for you, for 
example, if you live in Texas, to build a strong, tight, close squab house, 
for in that latitude, in a hen house built tight and close, vermin would 
swarm and harass the chicks, and they would harass the squabs just as 
fast. 

C«3) 




Cheap But Practical Nest Boxes. 



These are empty egg crates piled one atop another from floor to roof of Squab House. 
Each egg crate is two feet long, one foot wide and one foot deep. The partition in the middle 
makes two nest boxes, each one foot square. Into each of these nest boxes a wood nappy is 
placed. The birds build their nests in these wood nappies. 



National Standard Squab Book. 15 

Some of our customers write from places like Oregon aud Idaho, where 
there is a wet aud a dry season, and are puzzled to know what to do. In 
such cases we say, arrange your buildings as you see poultry houses ar- 
ranged. The pigeons will do as well or better under the same conditions 
as hens and chickens. 

Suppose you have a vacant building or shack of any kind in which you 
wish to raise squa'bs. We will take for granted that it has either a flat 
roof or a ridgepole with sloping roof, and that it is built in rectangular 
form. Never mind what the dimensions are; our advice will apply to 
either the large or the small structure. 

First raise it off the ground, or build a new floor off the ground, so that 
rats cannot breed out of your sight in the darkness and get up into the 
squab house. If there is an old floor, patch up all the holes in it. Now 
you need one door, to get yourself in and out of the squaib house, and 
you need at least one window through which the pigeons can fly from the 
squab house into the flying pen and back from fhe flying pen into the 
house. You will shut this window on cold nights, or on cold winter days. 
You must cover the whole window with wire netting so that the birds 
cannot break the panes of glass by flying against them. If you have no 
wire netting over the window, some of the birds, w'hea it is closed, will 
not figure out for themseles that the glass stops their progress, but will 
bang against the panes at full speed, sometimes hurting their heads and 
dazing them and at other times breaking the glass. 

The flying pen which you will build on the window side of tue squab 
house may be as small or as large as you have room. The idea of it is 
not to give the birds an opportunity for long flight, but simply to get 
them out into the open air and sunlight. They enjoy the sun very much 
and it does them good and they court its direct rays all the time. Build 
the flying pen, if you choose, up over the roof, so the 'birds may sua 
themselves there. If that side of the roof which faces the flying pen is 
too steep for the pigeons to get a foothold, nail footholds along the roof, 
same as carpenters use when they ai-e shingling a roof, and the pigeons 
will rest on these to sun themselves. For the flying pen you want the 
ordinary poultry netting, either of one-inch or two-inch mesh. The two- 
inch mesh is almost invariably used by squab raisers, because it is very 
much cheaper than ttie one-inch mesh. The one-inch mesh is used only 
by squab raisers who are afraid that small birds (the English sparrows 
here in New England) will steal through the large meshes of the two- 
inch netting and eat the grain which you 'have "bought for the pigeons. 
You can buy this wire netting in rolls of any width from one foot up to 
six feet. If your flying pen is 12 feet high, you should use rolls of the 
six-foot wire. If it is ten feet high, rolls which are five feet wide are 
what you want. If your flying pen is to be eight feet hig'h, buy rolls 
which are four feet wide. In joining one width of wire netting to its 
neighbor, in constructing your flying pen, do not cut small pieces of tie 
wire and tie them together, for that takes too much time and is a bungling 



National Standard Squab Book. 17 

job, but buy a coil of No. 18 or 20 irou wire and weave this from oue 
selvage to aaother of your wire nettiug, in and out of the meshes, and 
you have the best joint you can get, and a ship-shape job. 

You can line the three walls of the interior of your squab house with 
nests if you choose. The fourth wall is the oue in which the window or 
windows are. On this fourth wall you should not have nest boxes, but 
perches. These perches, or roosts, should be tacked up about 15 inches 
apart, so as to give the birds room without interfering with each other. 
The advantage of the V-sliaped roost which we advise is that a bird 
perched on it cannot soil the bird underneath. Do not buy the pateut 
pigeon roosts whidh you see advertised, for a pigeon roosting on one will 
soil the pigeon roosting on the one immediately below. 

Please note particularly at this point the following terms which we use, 
and do not become confused, The nest box is something in which rests 
the nappy or other Best pan in which the nest is built. Do not say or 
think of nests when you mean nest boxes. 

The nest boxes, when done, should look like the pigeon holes of a desk, 
and should be about one foot high, one foot wide and one foot deep. A 
•''ariation either way of an inch or two will not matter. 

One way to get those pigeon holes is to build them of nice pine lumber, 
in the form of boxing one-half or five-eighths of an inch thick. Another 
way is to use hemlock or spruce boards one inch thick. The third way 
(which we think is the best for the beginner who wishes to start cheapest 
and quickest) is to use egg crates, or orange boxes. These egg crates are 
two feet long, one foot wide and oue foot deep, but they are divided ia the 
middle by a partition, giving two spaces, each of a cubic foot, and this is 
just what the squab raiser wants. They are procurable almost anywhere 
in the United States and Canada brand new for ten or fifteen cents each, 
and if you buy them after the egg shippers are through with them, you 
can get them for three to five cents apiece. Some grocers will be glad 
to have you carry them away and will charge you nothing for them. The 
crates are built of thin, tough wood and usually are neat aad solid. Take 
off the covers and throw the covers away, you do not need them. Then 
put one egg crate on its side, open top out, and place another egg crate 
on top of that, and so on until you have covered the three walls of your 
squab house from the floor to the roof. Do not use aay nails, they are 
not necessary, the crates will keep in position by their weight. It is an 
advantage, also, to have them loose, for when you clean the nests, you 
can step up on ji chair or box, take down the crates, commencing with 
the top. and clean each oue with your feet on the floor. If you build a 
substantial set of nest boxes of boxing or hemlock lumber, you will have 
to stand on a chair arid strain your arms in order to clean the top nest 
boxes, so jou see their are points in the low-priced arrangement not pos- 
sessed by the faacy kind. It is on the same principle by which a humble 
small boy with bent pin and worms and an old pole catches more fish than 
the city angler with a $2Fi assortment of hooks, lines and artificial flies. 



National Standard Squab Book. 19 

It is the pigoons auil the iutelligeuoe behind them which do the trick, 
every time. A fancy pigeon house with fancy trimmings cannot produce 
any better squabs than the home-made affair, provided the birds are the 
same in both cases. 

You should have a pair of nest boxes for a pair of pigeons. By a pair 
of pigeons we mean two pigeons, a male and a female. By a pair of nest 
boxes we mean two nest boxes. We find that the word pair has a differ- 
ent meaning to people in different parts of Vhe country, perhaps on the 
same principle that a pair of scissors or a pair of suspenders is one ob- 
ject, while a pair of something else, as in this case, means two objects. 
A pair of pigeons attend to a pair of squabs in one nest box, nevertheless 
for each pair of pigeons you need two nest boxes, for when the squabs 
are about two weeks old in one nest, the old birds will go to the adjoining 
nest box, or to a nest box in a distant part of the squab house, and begin 
housekeeping again, laying eggs and dividing their attention between the 
two families. 

Count your nest boxes and you will know how many pigeons your house 
will accommodate. If your count shows 96 nest boxes (in other words, 
48 pairs of nest boxes), you can accommodate 48 pairs of pigeons. Do 
not write us and tell us that you have a house of a certain size and ask 
us to tell you how many pairs of pigeons it will accommodate. Put in 
your nest boxes as we have described and then count them, and you will 
know. Or you may figure it out for yourself on paper, allowing two nest 
boxes, each one cubic foot in size, for each pair of birds. To put it in 
another way, you should allow one cubic foot of nest box space for each 
breeding pigeon. Surely we have made this so plain now that you cannot 
go astray. 

Now suppose you work backwards, saying to yourself that you wish to 
order 96 pairs of 'breeders, and want to know how large a house you will 
need to accommodate them. From what we have written in the foregoing 
paragraph, you know that for each pair of pigeons you will need two 
nest boxes each one cubic foot in size. Therefore for 96 pairs of pigeons 
you will need 192 nest boxes, or 96 egg crates, or their equivalent in space. 

Perhaps your start will 'be made with so sniaU a number of birds that 
you will not have to cover more than one wall of your squab house with 
nest boxes. Cover one wall, or two walls, or three walls, whichever the 
occasion demands. Have a lot of spare boxes, if you wish, and let the 
breeding pairs choose where they will. An extra number of nest boxes 
may be useful to you to accommodate the young birds raised to breeding 
age fi'om the old birds which you buy of us, if you intend to raise your 
squabs to breeding age. 

An expenditure of not over five dollars, and a couple of days' time, 
will transform the average old building into a habitation for squabs. Put 
on the finishing touches and add to the expense to suit your fancy. You 
ninv cover the outside of the building with tarred paper and shingle or 



National Standard Squab Book. 21 

clapboard it. You may put a skylight iu the roof to let ia more sun. Im- 
prove it all you wish. Use your own judgment. 

To get at your pigeons in such a house, you walk in through the door 
and find yourself directly among them, the nest boxes all pointing at you. 
Go to the nest which you wish to iuvcstigate or from which you wish to 
take out the squabs and put your hand iu the opening. The old birds will 
fiy by your head, perhaps, and may strike you with their wings, but they 
Will not fly in your face and eyes, they are good dodgers. Don't be afraid 
that if you enter the house when the housekeeping is going on you will 
frighten the birds so they never will come back to the eggs or the squabs. 
They will seem timid at first, but they will get accustomed to you. In the 
course of a few weeks, only a few will make a great hustle to get away 
from you. Many of them will continue to sit contentedly on the eggs and 
if you put up your hand to them they will not fly off in fear but will slap 
you with their wings, telling you in their language not to bother them. 
Carry some hempseed in with you and you will teach the birds to come 
and eat it out of your hand. You can tame them and teach them to love 
you as any animal is taught. The pigeon, particularly the Homer, the 
king of them all, is a knowing bird. 

Tack up perches where you have room on that wall or those walls of 
the squab house which have no nest boxes. You do not need a perch for 
every pigeon, because while some are'on perches, others are iu the nests, 
or out in the flying pen, or on the roof, or on the floor of the squab house. 
If you have 48 pigeons, 20 perches will be enough, and you can get along 
with a dozen. Make each perch of two pieces of board, one six inches 
square, the other six inches by five, and toe-nail the perch to the wall of 
the squab house as shown in the illustration. Y'ou cannot have one long 
pole for a pigeon perch. If you had such a pole, and your pigeons were 
perched on it, or some of them were, a bully cock would saunter down the 
line and push off all the others. 

In the centre of the squab house you place an empty crate or over- 
turned box. The object of this is to break the force of the wand made 
by the pigeons' wings as they fly in and out of the squab house. Other- 
wise the floor of the squab house would be swept clean by the force of 
the wind. It also forms a roosting place for the birds, and finally, it is a 
convenient resting place for tlie straw, hay and grass out of which the 
pigeons build their nests. 

The floor of the squab house should be kept clean. We used to advise 
that a layer of sawdust one inch thick be kept on the floor of the squab 
house, to absorib the droppings, but we have found a steady and profitable 
demand for pigeon manure, and this manure is worth scraping up and 
carefully saving, for its sale will pay from one-quarter to one-third of the 
grain bill. Use a hoe to scrape the droppings from the floor, and pack 
(he manure away in barrels. Clean the floor about once in three weeks, 
or oftener, depending on the size of your flock. Pigeon manure is in active 
demand all the time by tanneries. We send the manure from our pigeons 




Nest Boxes Built of Lumber. 



This shows the front of the nest boxes as they face the interior of the squab house. They 
are from ten to twelve inches square, and the same distance deep. A slight variation does not 
matter. The fronts of the nest boxes are perfectly plain, as shown. It is not necessary to nail 
up pieces of board to keep the nappies and squabs from falling out. They will not fall out. 
The backs of the nest boxes may be on hinges, and be approached from a passageway, as shown 
in the picture on page 20. Or the backs may be solid, in which case you will get at the nests 
by going into the interior of the squab house. 



National Standard Squab Book. 23 

by freight to tanneries in Lowell, Lynn, Peabody and Dauvers, and are paid 
foi' it at the rate of sixty cents a bushel. 

A peculiarity about pigeon manure is that it is not foul-smelling like 
hen manure, and when it is mixed with water you get a kind of crude 
soap. In washing the nappies, no soap in ueeessary. Use warm water in 
washing (them and the manure caked to them forms a cleansing soap in 
conjunction with the water. If you have a basket in which you have 
transported pigeons, and whose bottom is caked with the Jiard droppings, 
lay the basket face down and sprinkle water liberally on the underside 
and the manure will drop off in large pieces from the inside and the 
basket will become perfectly clean. 

In raising live stock of 'any kind, arrange matters so the animals w'ill 
look after themselves as much as possible. We all know that automatic 
machinery has cheapened many articles formerly dear, and the perfect 
breeding outfit is automatic, needing only a supply of feed and water. 
Aim to cut down the factor of personal drudgery, so as to leave your 
time eiear to observe and plan, and execute intelligently. Beginners who 
load themselves down with a daily round of exacting duties soon lose 
heart, their patience gives out and they become disgusted. We have 
known breeders of rabbits to fail simply because they raised them in 
hutches. »Each hutch had a door and two dishes, one for feed, the other 
for water. Every day, the door of the hutch had to be opened, the hutch 
cleaned, the dishes refilled (and often cleaaed), and the door closed. It 
took 15 or 20 motions to do this for each hutch. Multiply this by 20 to 30 
(.the number of the hutches), and the burden grew unbearable. It was not 
surprising that in three or four mouths the breeder's patience was worn 
out. The factor of personal drudgery had become greater thau the rab- 
bits. The thoughtful breeder would have turned his rabbits into two or 
three enclosures on the ground and let them shift for themselves. Then 
one set of motions in feeding would have answered for all, and there 
would have been no dirt to clean up. Infinite patience as well as skill is 
required to make a success of animals given individual attention. The 
aim of every breeder should be to make one minute of his time serve the 
greatest possible numljer of animals. When you think and reason for 
yourself, you understand how much more practical it is to give sixty ani- 
mals one minute of your lime than one animal one minute. Time is money 
and if you are too particular, and too fussy, and thoughtless about these 
details, it is a clear case of the chances being sixty to one agaiust you. 

At the start, the problem of breeding squabs for market is in your favor, 
because one hundred pairs of breeding pigeons may be handled as easily 
and as rapidly as one pair. Try to keep this numerical advantage in your 
favor all the time. Discard every plan that cuts down the efficiency of 
your own labor, and adopt every device that will give you control in the 
same time over a greater number of pigeons. 

It takes brains and skilled labor to run a poultry plant successfully. 




Interior of Multiple Unit House. 



This is one of our houses. The drinking fountains stand in the passageway and their fronts 
project through the wire netting under the first row of nest boxes. The nest boxes are empty 
egg crates and do not open at the back. The feed troughs aie inside of each pen. In other 
houses, we set the feed troughs alongside the drinkers in the alleyway and cut away the netting so 
the birds can feed from them. We like the last arrangement best because the troughs can be filled 
quicker from the passageway, and the time of opening and closing doors and going into pens is 
saved. 



National Standard Squab Book. 



25 



Evevy poultrjiuan knows that he cannot entrust fhe regulation of tempera- 
tures of incubators and brooders to an ignorant hired man, but even a boy 
or girl, or under-the-average farm hand, knows enough to till up the bath- 
pans and feeding-troughs for squab-breeders, leaving the time of the 
owner free for correspondence and the more skilful work of killing and 
shipping the squabs. 

The primary oibject is to breed squabs for market as cheaply, as easily 
and as fast as possible, without the expenditure of" a dollar for fanciful 
or impractical appurtenances. 

Do not think it is necessai-y to heat your squab house. A squab house 
which has the cuill of dampness taken off it by hot water or steam pipes 
will raise more squabs than a house not heated, but a flock of pigeons in a 
small house throw off considerable heat from their bodies and will breed 
in cold weather all right. After you have developed your plant and have 
a large business which you wish to keep at the highest state of efficiency, 
you may heat your squab house. The idea of heat in winter time is to 
keep the birds more contented and get more squabs out of them, and 
not at all to keep them alive. Do not he afraid that your pigeons will 
freeze to death. 

City people can keep pigeons in the garret of a house, or the loft of a 
barn, without a foot of ground being needed. In such a case the flying 
pen, or place to which the pigeons go for sun and air, can be built out 
on a platform. The illustration shows how to utilize a window leading- 
from a garret. If you think that rats will trouble you in either a garret 
or barn loft, cover the floor inside, especially the corners, with fine wire 
netting through which it will be impossible for the rats to gnaw from 
below. 

One of our customers in Illinois, a rich horse breeder having a barn 
some 200 feet long, has turned the whole upper story into a loft for 
pigeons. The flying pen takes in t'he whole back of the bam. There are 
windows and no doors on this side of the barn, the horses using doors on 
the other side, so this leaves the upper story of the barn, and its who!* 
back yard, free for the pigeons. 




How We Rig Our SnirpiNG Baskets for Twelve Pairs 




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M o 

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p g 

CO 

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CHAPTER III. 
THE UNIT HOUSE. 

Rest Possible Construction for a Squab Plant— The Wind Break Forma- 
tion of Roof— Dimensions of the Unit— Multiplying the Unit to In- 
crease the Capacity of Your Plant — A Passageway Behind the Nest 
Boxes — Numbering the Hinged Backs of the Nest Boxes, and the 
Management of a Card Index to Correspond— Cost of the Unit Coa- 
structiou is from $3 to .$5 a Running Foot — Working Drawings — The 
Nappies. 



If you have no building already standing which you can fix over for 
pigeons, you may erect a simple rectangular structure and line it with 
nests as we have descnbed in the last chapter. We will tell you in this 
chapter how to put up the finest kind of a pigeon structure. It is at the 
-same time the most expeusive. It is the best, the most woi"kmaalike. lu 
saying that it is expensive, we do not mean that money is thrown away 
on its construction, for that is not so. It is a fit habitation for a money- 
making investTueat. 

Tills best method of construction results in what we call the unit house. 
You can multiply this unit as many times as you please Jjnd get as large 
a house as you wish, or you may add a unit from time to time, just as 
you add unit book cases to accommodates the growth of the modei>n library 
shelves. You can erect these units sepa''ately, or attach one unit to the 
other, so that you have one long building. 

The nest boxes are 'built of boxing and set in a vertical row at the back 
of the house, forming a wall between which and the north side of th«» 
house is a three-foot passageway. Y^'ou can buy this boxing at a saw mill 
all cut, tea by eleven inches, the dimensions of the nest, and if you get it 
in this shai>e you can put the boxes together with as much ease as a ctiild 
builds a doll's house. Y'ou will have no doubts as to the squareness and 
plumbncss of the structure when you have it up. Take long lengths of 
boxing eleven inches wnde for the shelving which should form the top and 
bottom of the nest boxes, then set the 10 in. x 11 in. pieces the proper 
distance apart. The finished nest will be eleven inches from front to back, 
ten inches from top to bottom, and about ten inches from one partition to 
the other (or whatever distance the proper distribution of your nests in 
pairs permits). 

We have found five-eighths inch boxing to be the best suited. Build the 
nest boxes up from floor to roof perfectly plain, just as the pigeon holes 
of a desk run. 



28 National Standard Squab Book, 

The nest boxes slioukl be perfectly plain, made of simple boxing in the 
manner described. Do not build up a piece of boxing at the front part of 
the nest to prevent the nappy from being pushed out. Early in our ex- 
perience we built a few nests in this way, but soon changed them over to 
the simpler form, on acconnt of the difHculty of keeping them clean. The 
droppiii!;s bank up at the front of such a nest box and it is almost impos- 
sible to clean thoroughly. 

The dimensions of this unit squab house are as follows: Length. 16 feet; 
width, 12 feet; length of flying pen from end of house to end of yard, 20 
feel; distance from floor of squab house to ridgepole, 12 feet; two windows 
in south wall of S(iuab house, each 2 ft. 2 in. wide and 3 ft. 10 in. high. One 
window in north wall of squab house, 2 ft. 2 in. wide and 3 ft. 10 in. high. 
Thfre is a passageway on the north side of the squab house three feet 
wide", separating the north wall from the vertical row of nest boxes. The 
door of the squab house opens into this passageway so that you can enter 
the house without being seen by the birds, and without disturbing them. 
The backs of the nest boxes are on hinges, so that you may turn them 
back and reach into the nests to take out the squabs when they are ready 
for the market. If you wish, you may set up rows of nest boxes on the 
east and west Avails of the sfjuab house and accommodate 50 more pairs. 
You cannot have a passageway behind these nest boxes on the east and 
west walls, but will approach them from the front by entering the interior 
of the squab house through a wire door which leads from the passageway. 
So, altogether, you can accommodate nearly 100 pairs of birds in such a 
unit house. In order not to crowd, it is best to put in not more than 75 
pairs. 

Build the flrst unit so that you may extend it either to the east or west 
(as your land lies) to increase your accommodations. Your squab house 
will always remain 16 feet from north to south, but it may be either 12 
feet from east to west, for one unit, or 24 feet for two units, or 36 feet for 
three units, and so on. We think it is most practical to keep about 48 
pairs of birds in one unit, 18 pairs in the next unit, and so on. Of course 
you may build one long house 16 feet wide and in length any multiple of 
twelve, and keep all the birds you wish in it, but we do not advise such 
an arrangement. You can keep track of your pairs better if you split a 
big flock up into unit flocl.s. 

The hinged backs of the nest boxes open into a pair of nest boires. By 
numbering the hinged backs, one number to a nest, you have a means of 
record keeping which is unequaled. I'rovide a card index (the cards be- 
ing blank and 3 by 5 inches in size) and number the cards to correspond 
with the nest boxes, and on these cards you may keep a record of what 
the birds in the nest boxes do. These cards, which are perfectly blank 
except for the numbers they bear, may be kept in a tray such as all the 
manufacturers of card indexes advertise in the back pages of the maga- 
zines and you can pick out any card you wish, or turn to it, at once. It 
is much better than keeping a record in a book, for you cannot tear out 



National Standard Squab Book. 29 

the leaves of a book, as you can throw a\Yay a card, nor can you shift one 
page from one location to another, as you can a card in a tray. 

The floor of the squab house rests on cedar posts and is two feet from 
the ground. The tlooi- is built of two thicknesses of board, with building 
paper between. The walls of the squab house are built of boards which 
are covered with building paper and shingled. The roof is shingled. You 
may use clapboards on the sides, or conunou boards. 

The cost of such a squab house, complete with flying pen and all inside 
fittings, built in the best possible manner, will be from .$3 to $5 a running 
foot. That is to say, a unit rdant 12 feet long will cost from .$36 to $60. A 
plant consisting of three units, 36 feet long, will cost from $108 to $150. 
We publish and sell for 25 cents complete working drawings showing just 
how to build a unit conjplete in every detail. On the same sheet are full 
working drawings for building a simple squab house (without passageway) 
to cost fnmi $15 to $25. Also on the same sheet we give data showing how 
one of our friends built a sciuab house and pen capable of accommodating 
220 pairs of breeders at a cost of $130. In ordering, simply say you wish 
plans and specifications for squab houses. 

In our early plans for the unit squab house, we provided for a buihling 
witli a "jog" in the roof, making a long, low slope for the south side of 
the roof, and on this slope the birds would sun themselves and make love. 
This "'jog" construction is more expensive than is needed, and now we 
have a better way. AVe have an ordinary pitch roof, sloping equally from 
the ridgepole to both iiorth and south. We run the flying pen out on the 
south side, not from the ridgepole, but from the eaves, and then out in the 
flying pen we erect perches as shown in the picture. The fact that the 
birds rest easily on these perches (as the photograph in the Appendix 
shows) is proof that they are contented and pleased by such an arrange- 
ment. We have found, too, that they can hear the squeaks of their young 
for food better than if they were up on the roof, and better attention to 
the squabs is the result. 

Please note particularly that if you erect one long building which will 
be a multiple of units, you separate these units, both inside and outside 
of the squab house, not by board partitions, but by wire partitions. For 
instance, if you have a building one hundred feet long, ten units, you will 
separate the units by nine wire partitions, these partitions being erected 
both inside and outside the house. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE NAPPIES AND NESTS. 

Do Not Use the Old-Fasliioned Nest Paus— The Six-Inch and Seven-Inch 
Nappies of Earthenware— Obvious Faults of the Earthenveare Nappy— 
A Perfect Device Found in the Wood Fibre Nest- Bowl, Which the 
Birds "Take to"— How the Pigeons Choose Nest Boxes. 

For nest pans, do not use the heavy, deep, red clay, unglazed dishes 
which you may see offered for sale as pigeon nests. They are a relic of the 
past. 

In our early experience we used for a pigeon nest-bowl the common 
kitchen yellow earthenware nappy. We employed two sizes, the six-inch 
and the seven-inch, changing from the large one to the small one when the 
squabs were two weeks old. These earthenware nappies filled the bill in 
being cheap and shallow^ and the pigeons deposited their manure in a 
circle outside and not inside the nest, but they have faults which are ob- 
vious. They are flat and not rounding on the bottom and when the female 
pigeon turns the eggs (as she does daily, same as a hen, in order to give 
the heat of her body to the whole shell) the eggs are liable to roll apart, 
making it necessary for the bird to gather them together again, and after 
two or three mishaps like this she is liable to desert them. The earthen- 
ware is cold, breakable and can be kept clean only with water. The wash- 
ing of the nappies becomes a tedious task and is often neglected. 

Later we perfected a nest-bowl made of wood which met every objection 
raised against the earthenware. We sold thousands of them during the 
two years we had them on the market and they gave good satisfaction ex- 
cept when some were made of improperly-seasoned lumber, in which case 
they would crack and split after a few months' use. After study and ex- 
periment to remove this objection, we had expensive patterns and moulds 
made and began the manufacture of these bowls out of wood fibre. Their 
success was quickly demonstrated and now we sell nothing else. These 
wood-fibre nest-bowls have all the advantages of the wood bowls and at the 
same time are practically indestructible, cannot warp or split. The wood 
fibre of which they are made is thick and exceedingly tough, being solidified 
under many tons' pressure. After making they are treated with an odor- 
less, anti-moisture compound and then baked to flint-like hardness. We 
sell these wood fibre nest-bowls in one size only, nine inches in diameter. 
Price, eight cents each, 96 cents per dozen, .$11.52 per gross. Prompt ship- 
ment from Boston same day order is received, in any quantity. No order 

(31) 



Old Style Pigkon Nest. WXter Dish. Large Nappv. Small Nappy. 
Do not use either the old style pigeon nest or open water dish. 




The Wood-Fibre Nest-Bowl. 

This is made in one size (nine inches diameter of bowl). To give stability, the bowl may be 
fastened to a base by one screw. The first picture sliows the perspective view ; the second picture 
shows one-half cut away. This is the most practical nest -pan for squab raising and is having an 
enormous sale. The bowl may be screwed directly to the bottom of the nest-box. (See opposite 
page.) 




Bath Pan and Drinker 



Hand Basket 



One bath pan to every 24 pairs of birds is necessary. The hand basket (price $3.50) is used 
in large plants to carry the squabs from the nests to the killing place. The squabs should not be 
killed in sight of the parent birds. 



National Standard Squab Book. 



33 



fihed for less than one dozen. We have the exclusive manufacture and sale 
6f these goods and they cannot be obtained elsewhere. 

The advantages of this nest-pan are these: (1) The eggs roll to the centre 
and are always close together under the Inrds. (2) It is warmer tlian 
<'artlienware and eggs are not chilled. (3) It is cleaned without water by 
means of a trowel, and may then be whitewashed, if desired. (4) The 
claws of the old birds and squabs do not sprawl, and no cases of deformed 
legs in the squabs are found. (5) It is unbreakable. (6) When shipped 
either short or long distances, no packing is necessary, they are lighter and 
tlie freight bill is smaller. (7) And finally the birds "take" to them mure 
readily than to earthenware, getting to work quicker and producing more 
squabs. 

We make this wood-fibre nest-bowl in only one size as al)ove specified and 
illustrated (two sizes are not necessary because the feet of the sijuabs du 
not sprawl as in the case of the earthenware nappies). You will need one 
pair of nappies for every pair of pigeons (in other words, one nappy to 
every pigeon). If you order 24 pairs of breeders you will need 48 nappies. 
If you order 96 pairs of breeders you will need 192 nappies. 

We know our birds will breed more successfully in these nest-bowls than 
in earthenware, and to make it an object for you to buy them, you may 
deduct the freight charges on nest-bowls from your order for birds. First 
order your nest-bowls sent by freight, then when you order your breeders, 
send us your freight receipt and count the amount as cash. Or you may 
order your birds at the same time you do the nest-bowls (and other sup- 
plies) and when you get your freight receipt send it to us. 

Place one nest-bowl in each one of your nest-boxes. Let the pairs choose 
to suit themselves. At the end of the month, when you take out the squabs, 
take out the nest-bowl, clean it and put it back. 

It is seldum that our customers 
build the nest boxes with hinged 
backs. The solid backs are much 
more desirable. Many customers 
who do not use egg-crates or orange 
boxes, but build their nest-boxes of 
half-inch or five-eighths lumber, have 
written us tliat they used the con- 
struction which we illustrate here-, 
with, and which is good, because 
cleaning can be better done. The 
bottoms of the nest-boxes are re- 
movable and rest on cleats, as the 
picture shows. The cleats are sev- 
en-eighths or one inch square and 
are nailed to the uprights. When this construction is employed, it is not 
necessary that you have u block or base screwed to our wood fibre nest 




34 National Standard Squab Book. 

bowl. The nest-bowl may be screwed Jirectly onto this removable bottom. 
If you use egg-crates or solid-built nest-boxes, you will have to give the 
wood fibre nest-bowl stability by screwing it to a base of wood seven inches 
square and aboat three-quarters of an inch thick. 

When the sqaab house is ready for the birds, each of the nest-boxes has 
one of these nest-bowls. The pigeons build their own nests in them, taking 
the nesting material and flying to the nest-bowl with it. The average nest 
has from one to two inches of straw compactly and prettily laid by the 
birds. Some birds use more nesting material than others. After the 
squabs are hatched, they quickly show that Nature never intended them 
to have a dirty nest. " When they wish to make manure, they back up to 
the edge of the nest and "shoot" outward and over the edge of the nest- 
bowl into the nest-box, which is just where the breeder wants to find it. 
In a week or two there will be a circle of solid manure rn the nest-box, but 
it is out of the nest, and off and away from the feet of the squabs. As the 
squabs grow older, their claws tread and throw out the straw on which 
they were hatched, and the nest-bowl gets bare again as it was in the first 
place. The small amount of nuinure which then sticks to it is removed 
with a trowel. 

The use of this wood fibre nest-bowl has lightened the work a great deal 
for they never have to be washed. We do not whitewash ours. The work 
of whitewashing takes time, and we have not found it essential. 

The pigeons will not take with mathematical regularity pair by pair the 
nest-boxes which you have provided. Some of them will take them in 
pairs, one adjoining the other. This makes it very convenient for you in 
keeping track of them. Others will take one nest-box in one part of the 
squab house but go to another part of the squab house for their second 
nest. Some will not take a nest-box at all, but will build a rough nest on 
the floor of the squab house and rear their family there. Let them choose 
for themselves. 

The nests are built by the birds of hay, straw and jjrass. The birds fly 
to the pile, select what wisps they want, then fly to the nest-boxes and ar- 
range the wisps in a nappy to suit themselves. Tobacco stems are recom- 
mended for nesting material, because the odor from them will have a tend- 
ency to drive away lice, but they are not necessary if the nappies are used 
and ordinary cleanliness observed. 

The best thing to keep the nesting material in is a berry crate. Fill it 
with straw and hay (use the fine oat. not rye straw, cut into six inch 
lengths) and shut down the cover. Then when the birds want nesting ma- 
terial they will fly to the vertical openings in the sides of the berry crates, 
stick their bills in and make their selection. The cover of the berry crate 
prevents the birds from soiling the nesting material. They will not build 
nests with dirty nesting material. It must be first-class, clean, dry and 
sweet or they will not use it. 



CHAPTER V. 

^VATER AND FEED. 

Necessity of Pure Water and Plenty of It — The Kind of Drinking Dish 
to Use and tlie Kind Xot to Use — ^lauagement of the Drinking 
Fountain and Bath Pan — The Feed Trough and Self Feeder — Feeding 
Habits— AVhat Grains to Use— How to Mix Ked Wheat and Cracked 
Corn— Use of Grit, Oyster Shell and Salt— How to Feed the Dainties 
— Keep Feed Before Your Flock All the Time. 



Pure water and plenty of it is a great blessing for pigeons. It is the 
custom of pigeons to get right into water, wherever it is. When they 
cannot bathe in it, they will stick their dirty feet into it. When they 
cannot get in their feet, they will douse their heads. They are after 
water, water all the time. When feeding the squaibs, the old bird will 
fill up its crop with grain, then fly to the water and take a drink, then 
return and dole out to the S(iuabs the watery and milky mixture on which 
they fatten. Therefore you should study the water problem and make 
preparations to give the birds plenty of it, both bathing and drinking 
water. • 

The source of drinking water should be separate from the bath pan. 
They will drink from the bath pan, to be sure, while the water remains 
comparatively clean, but after a few have bathed in it it is unfit for any 
bird to drink, and inside of twenty minutes the pan is not only covered 
with a whitish, greasy scum, but is dyed greenish from the dung which 
has Avashed off rheir feet. 

There should be drinking water inside the squab house, provided you 
have not a running stream or some such clean water device in the flying 
pen. 

The kind of water dish you do not want in the squab house is the 
kind MJth the open top, into which t'he birds can wade, and which they can 
foul with their droppings. The best device which we have found is the 
so-called self-feeding poultry fountain, such as we illustrate. This fountain 
is made either of crockery or tin or galvanized iron. Tin or galvanized 
iron is better than Crockery, because if water freezes in such a dish, the 
dish will not be cracked. We calculate to use the crockery dishes in 
houses where it is never cold enough to freeze. It will be seen by exam- 
ination of the self-drinker that it is impossible for the pigeons to foul fhe 
water. The reservoir holds quite a supply of water, which feeds down 
as fast as it is drunk by the pigeons. We have seen beginners puzzled 
by these self-drinking dishes; they cannot imagine why the water does 

(35) 



;^6 National Standard Squab Book. 

not all run out at ouce by tht^ bottom bole. It i.s a simple principle in 
hydraulics which you may demoustrate to your owu satsfaction by filling 
an ordinary tumbler with water and then inverting it in a saucer of 
water. There is no way for the air to get to the inside of the tum'bler 
except by passing under the rim at the points where it touches the saucer, 
consequently it does not How down unless the water is removed from the 
saucer, and then it ceases as soon as the water in the saucer rises over 
t^he lim of the tumibler again. In fact, some self-drinkers for poultry are 
made of two pieces of pottery;, exactly on the principle of the tumbler and 
saucer. These fountains are not so practical as the fountain which we 
illustrate, because a pigeon can roost on the top of it and foul the saucer 
with its droppings. In the fountain which we picture it is impossible for 
droppings to reach the mouth containing the water, even if the pigeon 
js i)erched directly on top of the fountain. The barrel shape of the foun- 
taia makes it haul for more than one pigeon to perch at the same time on 
its top, but one pigeon usually is found there. He gets up there, for the 
special purpose, it seems, of fouling the water, but the fountain beats 
him and Jie can't do it. Neither can he put his feet in the water unless 
he is an extraordinary gymnast capable of holding 'his body out at an 
angle to the perpendicular. The result is, that in actual practice the 
water keeps clean, and there is a snpi)ly of it ready about all the time. 
A fountain of a gallon capocity will keep two or three dozen pairs of 
breeders smpplied all day. The fountain is filled by turning it on end and 
pouring water down into the opening. If*you fill the fountain at the same 
time yon fill the bath pan in the morning, you will have done your duty 
by the pigeons for the day. 

There ai"e several patterns of self drinkers but the principle of all is 
the same and you should select a pattern something like that we have de- 
scribed and which appears to yon to be best protected from soilings. 
These fountains are for sale by every poultry supply store in every trad- 
ing centre. 

The best place for the bath, nan is out in the yard of the flying pen, 
A pan 15 inches in diameter is right for a flock up to 24 pairs of 'birds 
iU(\ it will do for a large flock if you renew the water. The pan should 
be from four to six inches deep, not over six inches, for a pigeon will not 
bathe in water where it would be likely to drown if pushed or sat on by 
its mates. Having the bath pan in position on the ground of the flying 
pen, you take to it once each day, in the morning, a bucket of water, and 
pour the water into the pan. Then you can go away to business, if you 
wish. The pigeons will fly to the pan from the interior of the house, or 
from the roof, wherever they happen to be. Some will splash right in. 
Others will perch on the rim and drink before they bathe. When the 
water gets dirty, they know enoug'h not to drink, unless they are very 
sorely pressed indeed for water. The water does get quite dirty from the 
balhing. A thick, greasy, white scum forms. The pigeons do not rnstle 
in I he ilirt. as a hen does, but rely on the water to keep them clean and 



National Standard Squab Book. 37 

daiuly. They fiap tlicir wings in the ^^atel• and enjoy it thoroughly. A 
pigeon will ni-vcr run away from water, as you will discover if when you 
ai-e watering your lawn you turn the hose on them. A summer shower 
will find them perched oa the roof where they can get it. In the winter 
time, if ice forms in the bath pan, they will break it and bathe. 

Let the dirty ■s\ater stand in the bath pan all day if you choose, or you 
may go to it an hour or two after you have filled the pan, and empty the 
water. One bath a day is enough. 

If there is a stream of water running through your property handy to 
your squab house, build your flying pen out over it and you need never 
trouble with bath pans or drinking water. If it is a deep stream, you will 
have to contrive a shallow bath tub at the shore, or divert part of the 
stream into a shallow run. The squab raiser with a stream of w-ater 
handy should by all means make use of it and save himself the work of 
carrying water in pails. 

The bath pan may rest in a basin, if you choose, and the overflow 
caused by the splashing of the wings may be conducted to a sewer and 
drained away. You may conduct water in pipes and have a faucet open- 
ing out over the bath pan, which faucet you may control either directly, 
or from a central station. An easy home-made arrangement to be used in 
conjunction with the bath pan consists of , a wet sink in which the bath 
pan sits, and out of which the siplashed water runs. In the winter it may 
be advisable to give your pigeons their bath in the squab house instead 
of in the yard of the flying pen, in which case you should have some 
device on the wet sink principle to prevent the floor of the squab house 
from getting damp. 

Feed may be given to pigeons in a less guarded way, for they do not 
soil the feed dish so freely as they do the drinking dishes. You may put 
the feed in open dishes in the squab house. If you observe them when 
eating, you will notice that they stand up to the feed dish in a somewhat 
orderly manner and peck at its contents. They do not sit in the dish and 
roll around in the feed as they do in the water. But they have one fault 
when eating from an open dish and that is, to scatter the grains. They 
will push in their bills and toss them around in a search after tidbits, and 
scatter out on the floor kernel after kernel, and it will make your bump 
of economy ache to see this grain scattered around. There do not seem 
to be any neat, saving pigeons which go to the floor in the wake of their 
prodigal brethren and eat the crumbs. They all have a fancy to the first 
table and they get right at it and scatter the grain like the rest of their 
fellows, and aiiparently the pigeon who scatters the most grain is the one 
which struts around wnth the biggest front. The way to fool them is to 
provide in the s(iuab house a covered trough, that is, covered except at the 
slit or points where they stick in their bills for food. With a little in- 
genuity you can cover an ordinary v-shaped trough so that it will be 
hard for the pigeons to waste the grain. Y^ou may have a self-feeder made 



38 National Standard Squab Book. 

as big or as small as you choose and in wliic-h tlie grain will drop down as 
it is eaten. 

We illustrate one form of self-feeder with which we have had experi- 
ence. It is a kind that rests on a post in a tiymg pen. We do not reeoni- 
menu this, however, for general use. We have had many customers who 
built it and tried it on our recommendation write back to us that the pig- 
eons did not seem to like it. It depends on the flock a good deal. Some flocks 
take to it natnrally on the principle of following the leader, but the aver- 
age flock of pigeons fight shy of it. Its construction is quite a trouble, often 
necessitating the calling in of a carpenter. And one cannot be built short 
of an expense of $3 to $5. Altogether it is not one of the essentials, and ex- 
perience has taught us that it is best to recommend only the fundamental 
devices. If you wish to build one, however, go ahead. We show the per- 
spective view as well as the plan, elevation and cross section. If you 
have a self feeder, either in the squab honse or outside on a post, as pic- 
tured, you may go away for a few days and have a sure feeling that your 
pigeons will not starve while you are away. 

We will try to present the matter of feed as clearly and fully as it seems 
to vts to be possible. A woman in Santa Cruz, California, said she would 
like to raise squabs, and would begin by ordering her feed of us, exactly 
as we recommended, to be sent to her by freight from Boston via the 
Southern Pacifiic. A man in Cleveland ordered a quantity of red wheat 
and cracked corn to be sent by freight from us, when there were thou- 
sands of bushels of both staples in elevators in his city, in fact most of 
the Boston supply had passed through his city. We did not like to run 
the chance of losing the order for breeding stock either of the woman in 
Santa Cruz or of the gentleman in Cleveland, but we wrote to both that 
they ought not to go into the squab raising business if they were to be de- 
pendent on us for grain, that it was too far to send and that if they 
would look around home they could get what they wanted. 

Here in New England we feed to pigeons red wheat, cracked corn, 
hemp-seed, Canada i)eas, kaffir corn and buckwheat. Sometimes whole 
corn is used, but this is a poor food for a flock of breeders, for if the big 
kernels get into the crops of the squabs it will choke and plug them up 
with a case of indigestion. 

All the time people write to as and say tliey never heard of red wheat. 
More write and saj they don't know what kafflr corn is. Others are puz- 
zled by hempseed, they have never seen any. That is surprising to us 
here in New England, but no doubt we would be just as surprised if we 
were in our customers' places. 

Let us see if we cannot level up the whole country on this question of 
feed for pigeons. As a rnle, we say, feed the grain which is nearest you. 
Tills country has its corn belt, its wlieat belt, its section where millet is 
raised. Buckwheat is plentiful in another section. For your leading 
grain, your staple, select tliat grain whicli you can get cheapest and 
easiest. The point to remember is to feed a variety of grains. Keep this 



National Standard Squab Book. 39 

word variety in your mind all the time in dealing with your pigeons. 
Their appetites do not grow keen on a monotonous diet and their health 
will not be good on it. Vary the diet. 

In order to find out what grains are convenient to you, go to your near- 
est grain dealer or country general store. The dealer in nine cases out of 
ten knows nothing a'bout pigeons and th^'ir feed and it you give him the 
name of a strange grain, he will be liable to shy and say he never heard 
of it. The trouble with him is that he sells horse feed and is accustomed 
to handling only the grains which horses need. He can get the grains you 
wish by writing to his nearest port or railroad junction. There is nothing 
odd or out of the way about the grains. They are going from one point 
to another all the time. Sometimes they are scarce at certain periods of 
the year. For instance, all this summer there has been no kaflSr corn at 
a reasonable price obtainable in Boston, so we have not fed it to our 
pigeons, but have cut it out altogether in favor of the grains selling at a 
lower price. Most of the kaifir corn which we get in Boston comes from 
Kansas. It is a splendid feed for pigeons. It is small and comparatively 
soft, and their crops make easy work of it. It is nourishing and they like 
it. JMaybe your grain man sells a mixture for pigeons. If you will look 
in this mixture you will find probably kaffir corn, as well as buckwheat 
(in black kernels), also red wheat and Canada peas. Do not feed Canada 
peas in great abundance to a house full of squab breeders. We have fed 
a bountiful supply of Canada peas to birds and later on found the crops 
of some of the squabs distended with a great mass of something which on 
examination was found to be whole Canada peas. The parent birds had 
simply filled their own crops with the whole peas, then taken a drink of 
water and gone directly to the young squabs and allowed them to cram 
their crops full. Squaibs are killed by these whole grains which the old 
birds do not take time to properly break up. If you wish to feed Canada 
peas in good measure, pound them up with a mortar and pestle into finer 
form and you will be on the safe side. 

For the same reason, we sometimes take cracked corn and pound it even 
finer than it is when we buy it. 

Do not feed ;tn excess of corn, particularly in the summer time. (By 
corn, we mean common Indian corn, not kaffir corn. Kaffir corn is harm- 
less, even when forced on the birds.) The effect of corn is to heat the 
blood. This is what you want in the winter time, but not in the summer. 
If fed to excess in the summer time, it will cause canker in the old birds, 
which is a sort of diphtheria, filling their throats with a thick, cheesy-like 
compound, and the throats of some squabs also get filled up in the same 
manner. By an excess of com, we mean that corn forms the major part 
of the diet. In the summer, feed two parts of red wheat to one part of 
cracked corn. In the winter feed two parts of cracked corn to one part 
of red wheat. In other words, set before the pigeons in the summer 
twice as much red whea+ as cracked corn, in the winter time twice as 
much cracked corn as red wheat. 






\ 


-Vi-- 


t 
\ 


1 


c ';; > 


/ 





National Standard Squab Book. 41 

White wheat fed to pigeous here iu New Enghiud causes scoiirs or 
diarrhoea, but we have customers ia the West Avho write us that they are 
feeding white wheat with no bad effects. Use red wheat and you are ab- 
solutely sure that your pigeons will not have diarrhoea. 

All the grains which you feed should be old, hard, dry and sweet. If 
they smell sour or taste bad to your own tongue, don't feed them to your 
pigeons. A'bove all, keep your grain dry. If you have the grain stored in 
bias which are damp from ground water, or which -catch the drippings 
from the eaves, or through holes in the roof, first you Avill get sour grain 
and then some of the grain will sprout, and this sprouted grain will de- 
range the bowels of your birds ami bring on dysentery. Do not let rank 
little growths spring up ia a dirty squab house or in the yard of your 
flying pen. Pigeons will peck at green leaves and grass and will not be 
harmed, but do not give them a chance to peck up sprouted grain and eat 
the sprout, grain and all, for if they do they will have diarrhoea. A 
pigeon ia good condition and busy with a nest ordinarily will not touch a 
nasty 'little green sprout, but in the moulting season, when pigeons are iu 
the dumps generally, and feeling like having a stimulant, they will experi- 
ment with these sprouts. Keep the floor of your squat) house clean and 
the yard of the flying pen raked up and you need not worry abont this 
matter. 

Ground oyster shell should be placed in a box handy for the >pigeons to 
get at. The purpose of this oyster shell is to provide the censtituents of 
the eggshell. The female pigeon needs it in order to fonn the egg. 

Grit is needed by tiie pigeons to enable them to reduce to powder the 
feed which they take into their crops. The muscles of the crop work 
the grit on the grains and reduce the grains so that they mix with the di- 
gestive fluids. There are special grits on the market advertised and for 
sale at reasonable prices, but if- there is a gravel bank near you, or a 
deposit of fine sand, you do not need to buy grit. Simply cart two or 
three bushels of the fine gravel or saad into your flying pen and cover the 
ground'with it. It is not necessary to cover the whole space of the ground 
of the flying pen with grit. Some breeders use pounded glass. 

It is poor policy to mix anything but red wheat and cracked corn to- 
gether. If you make a mixture of peas and hempseed with cracked corn 
and red wheat, you will find that the pigeons will dig down after the peas 
and hempseed and toss the other grain around and waste it. The omy 
mixture, therefore, which we feed is a mixture of red wheat and cracked 
corn. According to the advice we have given, we take a grain scoop or 
any measure, and in the summer time mix' two parts of red wheat to one 
of cracked corn; in the winter, two parts of cracked corn to one of red 
wheat. 

We call the red wheat and cracked corn staples, because with us in 
Xew England it form.s tJie major jtart of the diet, and is the cheapest. 
The hemp seed, buckwheat, Canada peas, kaflir com and millet we call 
dainties. We do not feed much millet, because we have the other grains. 



42 National Standard Squab Book. 

which are cheapest, but some of our customers in the millet sections of 
the country feed a good deal of millet. Tn such cases they look on millet 
as oue of their staples, aud the hard-to-get grains are classed by them as 
daiinties. The staple grains of which you will feed the most to your 
pigeons are the ones which are cheapest for you. The more expensive 
grains will be classed by you as dainties. 

A good way to feed the dainties is to throw them out on the fioor of 
the squab house by hand. You will see the pigeons make a rush for 
tuem and eat them with as much relish as a child eats candy. You should 
feed the dainties about three times a week, throwing handfuls on the floor 
until you see that the pigeons are satisfied and do not care for any more. 

Do not throw any feed on the ground of the flying pen, for the eartli is 
liable to be damp, and this dampness will sour the grain, especially cracked 
coiTi, and if the pigeons eat it, they will get sour crops, and the fluids 
from the sour crops of the parent pigeons will make the squabs sick and 
perhaps kill them. Do all your feeding in the squab house (supplemented, 
if you wish, by the protected self feeder out in the flying pen) and your 
pigeons will not have sour crops. 

Do not lay in a big stock of cracked corn at a time, for cracked coi-n 
exposed to sudden changes of the weather is liable to take up dampness, 
and sour. Smell and taste it once a week or so and determine to your 
own satisfaction that it is not sour. 

Some squab breeders feed twice a day, as much as the birds will eat up 
clean, but we do not believe in that sy.stem of feeding. Our own success, 
and the success of our customers in squab raising, is based largely on 
the fact that we insist on a continuous supply of food for the pigeons. 
Food should be at hand for them all the time. They do not gorge, as a 
horse will if an unlimited supply of food is set before him. They are not 
gluttons, and never get fat and pot-bellied. They always know when to 
stop eating, and never waste food by eating grain that they do not want. 
They do not lose their racy shape. A squab when hungry will squeak 
loudly to inform its parents of that fact and if you observe a squab' house 
where the two meals a day are in vogue, you will note quite a chorus of 
squeaks. In a house where there is feed always at hand, yom will not 
hear many hungry squeaks. It is greatly to your interest that the crops of 
your young birds; be filled with food. The more their crops are stuffed 
with food, the quicker they will fatten and the fatter they will get. The 
parent birds should at all times be able to fill up their crops with feed 
and water and then fly to the nest to disgorge for the benefit of the 
squabs. 

Some small parent Homers are such good feeders, such good fathers and 
mothers, that they stuff their squabs with grain and bring them up to a 
surprising fatness. Y'ou cannot predict that the squabs from small par- 
ents will be small, for this element of stuffing the feed into the young ones 
is worth taking account of. We have had pairs of squabs which actually 
at four weeks of age were bigger than their parents. This is not surpris- 



National Standard Squab Book. 



43 



iug when you think that the squabs sit in their uest hour after hour doing 
nothing but accumulate fat, and taking no exercise to train off this fat. 
The old birds are ilyiug around and do not have much fat ou them; they 
are trim and muscular, and hard tieshed. You can tell an old i)igeon after 
it is cooked when you put your teeth iuto it, just as you can tell an old 
fowl. 

To close this chapter, we will leave one thought with you which you 
must not forget, and that is, to provide salt for your pigeons. All animals 
need salt in order to keep strong and healthy. The safest kind of salt 
for you to u.so is rock salt, such as is sold for horses. Put a couple of big 
lumps of It in the .squab house and let the pigeons peck at it when they 
wish. About on<?p in two weeks wet the grain with salted water, then dry 
the grain and let the pigeons eat it and they will get it into their systems 
in this manner. Do not use powdered salt for if you do the birds may 
eat too much of it and it will kill them. Coarse ground salt may be used, 
but the rock salt is best. 




Squab Hoise Built of Logs. 




The Matixi; Coor. 



One way of inating squab breeders is to turn cocks and hens in equal number into the same 
pen. The mating coop is used when the breeder wishes to pair a certain male with a certain 
female. The above mating coop is divided by a partition. The cock is placed on one side of 
the partition, the hen on the other, as pictured. They are left thus for a day or two to tease 
each other. Then raise the partition, or take it out, and allow them to approach each other 
when they usually will be found to have formed an attachment. This being the case, they 
may be put into the large pen with the other birds, where they will find a nest box and go to 
housekeeping. If they fight when the partition is removed, try again, or try other mates. The 
coop pictured above is two feet long, one foot wide and one foot deep. 



CHAPTER VI. 
LAYING AND HATCHING. 

Laying an Egg i.s Under tlie Control of the Pigeon's Mind — Fertile and 
Unfertile Eggs— How the Cock Drives the Hen — One Day Between 
Eggs— Hatch After Seventeen Days— How Squabs are Fed by the 
Parent Birds— Mating Males and Females — Use of the Mating Coop 
— Determination of Sex — Color of Feathers Has No Effect on Color 
of Flesh— Pigeons Left to Themselves Will Not Inbreed— No In- 
breeding Necessary Even if You Start With a Small Flock. 



The hen pigeon builds the nest. When the nest is built, the cock begins 
to "drive" the hen around the house and pen. In a flock of pigeons on 
the roof of the squab house, you always will see one or two cocks "driv- 
ing" their mates, pecking at them and nagging them with the purpose of 
forcing them onto the nest to lay the eggs. The cock seems to take more 
interest in the coming family than the hen. 

The hen lays one egg in the nest, then skips a day and lays the second 
egg on tlie third day. Seventeen days after being laid the eggs hatch. 
The egg first laid hatches a day before the .second, sometimes, but usually 
the parents do not sit close on first egg, but stand over it, and do not in- 
cubate it. Sometimes one squab may get more than its share of food, and 
the younger one will weaken and die. This seldom happens but if you 
see one squab consideraibly larger than the other, the thing to do is to ex- 
change with a s(|uab from another nest that is nearer the size of the re- 
maining squab. TLe old birds will not notice the change but will continue 
feeding the foster squah. 

The process of laying an egs if' a mental operation. We mean by this 
that it is not a process which goes on regularly in spite of all conditions. 
The hen forms the egg in her body and lays it when she wants to, not 
when she is forced to. In other words, the hen lays when conditions are 
satisfactory to her. That she forms the egg at will is proven by many ' 
things, principally by the fact that she allows one day to come in between 
the first and the second eggs. No doubt, after she has laid the first egg, 
she hurries the other along and lays it as soon after the first as she can, 
and it takes 'IS hours for the egg, complete in its wonderful construction, 
to form. Hen pigeons in a shipping crate or close coop do not lay eggs, 
because they know that there are no facilities there for raising young. 
Once in a while you will find an egg in a shii)ping crate when the birds 
are taken out, but it is a comparatively rare occurrence. 

Of course, in order to lay a fertile egg, th^' hen pigeon must have re- 

(45) 



^6 National Standard Squab Book. 

ceived the attention of the cock bird. It is common for a hen pigeon at 
five months, and sometimes four, to lay an egg, but as a rule those first 
eggs from a young hen are not fertile because she has not yet mated with 
the cock bird. After a hen pigeon has reached six months of age, and is 
paired with a male, it is safe to assume as an almost inTariable rule that 
the eggs she lays will be fertile. When the male bird gets to be six to ten 
years old, he may lose his vitality, and the eggs laid by his mate will not 
be fertile. Then it is necessary to provide the female with a new mate. 
The breeders we sell are of ;.>rime breeding age, from eight months to 
eighteen months old, and the eggs laid by hens of that age will be fertile, 
and of full size, and the squabs 'bred from them will not be scrawny and 
lacking in vitality. 

From the day of its hatching to market time the squab is fed by its 
parents. The first food is a liquid secreted in the crop of both cock and 
hen, and called pigeons' milk. The parent pigeons open their bills and the 
squabs thrust their bills within to get sustenance. This supply of pigeons' 
milk lasts from five to six days. It gradually grows thicker and in a week 
is found to be mixed with corn and wheat in small particles. When about 
ten days old, the squabs are eating hard grain from the crops of the ma- 
ture cock and hen, which fill up at the trough, then take a driak of water 
and fly to the nest to minister to the little ones. You see how important 
It Is to have food available at all times. 

In 14, 15 or 16 days after the first pair of sqnabs have been hatched, the 
cock begins "driving" the hen again. This shows the necessity of a 
second nest for the pair. In this second nest the hen lays two more eggs, 
and the care of the first pair of sijuabs, now between two and three weeks 
old, devolves upon the cock. When this pair is four weeks old, it is taken 
out of the nest and kill^^d and both the mature birds are conceraed then 
only with the new hatch. This secjuence of eggs and hatches goes on all 
the time. 

If there are not two nests, the two new eggs will be laid in the nest 
where are the growing squabs and the parents in their eagerness to sit on 
the new eggs will push the squabs out of the nest and they will die for 
lack of sustenance. 

The hen lays the eggs about four o'clock in the afternoon. The cock and 
hen take turns iit covering the eggs, the hen sitting during the night until 
abo'it ten o'clock in the morning, when the cock relieves her, remaining on 
until the latter part of the afternoon. 

Wlien the nappies are changed at the end of two weeks, the nest-box 
should Ije scraped clean with a trowel. When the squabs are taken out 
for market at the end of four weeks, the nappy should be washed and 
scalded and the nest-box whitewashed. If the nappies are changed and 
the whitewash used regularly, no trouble from parasites will result. In 
the summer it is well to add a little carbolic acid to the whitewash as an 
extra precaulion. Sprinkle unslaked lime on the floor of the squa'l) house 
and in the nest boxes. 



National Standard Squab Book. 47 

One way of mating pigeons is to turn males and females in equal 
number into the same pea. They will seek their own mates and settle 
down to steady reproduction. Another method is to place the male and 
female which you wish to pair in a mating coop or hutch. In the course 
of a few days they will mate and then you may turn them loose in the big 
pen with the others. The latter method is necessary when improving your 
tiock by the addition of new blood, or when keeping a positive record of 
the ancestry of each pair. By studying your matings, you may improve 
the efficiency of your llock. If you are raising squabs for breeders, you 
should use the miiting coop constantly so as not to inbreed, which the 
young pigeons might do if left the chance. 

In case a pigeon loses its mate by death or accident, the sex of the dead 
one must be ascertained and a live pigeon of the same sex introduced to 
the pen to mate with the odd one. Or the live one should 'be removed from 
the pen and placed in the mating coop with a pigeon of the opposite sex. 

The mating coop should have a partition of lattice work or wire. Place 
the cock in one side, the hen in the other, and leave them thus for two or 
three days to flirt and tease each other, then remove the central lattice 
work or wire and they usually will mate. If they show no disposition to 
mate but on the coQtrary fight, replace the partition and try them for two 
or three day.> longer. If they refuse to mate after two or three thorough 
trials, do not experiment any more with them, but select other mates. 

The determination of the sex of pigeons is difficult. The bones at the 
Tcnt of a female are as a rule wider apart than of a male If you hold the 
beak of a pigeon in one hand and the feet in the other, stretching them 
out, the male bird usually will hug his tail close to its body— the female 
will throw her tail. The best way to deteraiine the sex is to watch the 
birds. The mal^^ is more lively than the female, and does more cooing, and 
in flirting with her usually turns around several times, while the female 
seldom turns more than half way around. The male may be seen pecking 
at the female and driving her to nest. When one pigeon is seen chasing 
another inside and outside the squab house, the driven one is the female 
and the driver her mate. 

Neither the squab-breeder nor the flying-Homer breeder is much con- 
cerned about the color of feathers. There are blue checkers, red checkers, 
black checkers, silver, blue, brown, red, in fact about all the colors of the 
rainbow. Color has no relation to the ability of a pair to breed a large 
pair of squabs. We wish specially to emphasize the fact that the color 
of the feathers has no influence on the color of the skin of the squab. A 
white-feathered bird does not mean a whiter-skinned squab. The feed 
affects the color of the meat a little. A corn-fed pigeon will be yollower 
than one fed on a mixture. Squabs with dark skins (almost black in 
some cases) are the proilnct of l)lood matings. The trouble with a dark- 
colored squab is in the blood and the only remedy is to get rid of them 
either by killing the parents or by remating. Usually the trouble comes 
from one parent bird, which you can find by turning up the feathers and 








•'-S*5«^ 



One Week Olt). 

So rapidly do squabs grow that you will quickly 
notice their increase in size from day to day. 




Two Weeks Old. 




Three Weeks Old. 



Foi R Weeks Oi.i> 



National Standard Squab Book. 49 

fxamiuiug the skin. Having foimd the bird wliicli is at fault, liill it. Tliis 
point has come up continually in our correspondence. The erroneous be- 
lief that white-feathered birds produce the whitest-skinned squabs seems 
to be widespread and we are asked sometimes for a flock of breeders "all 
white." Our experience with all white Homers is that they have less 
stamina than the colored ones. (This is also the experience of poultrymen 
with all white fowls; they are not hardy.) The marketmeu will take two 
or three pairs of dark-skinned squabs in a bunch without comment, but 
an excess of dark ones will provoke a cut in price. Breeders who are ship- 
ping only the undressed squabs should pluck feathers now and then to 
see just what color of squabs tliey ai"e getting. The dark-colored squabs 
are just as good eating as the light-colored ones, but buyers for the hotels 
and clubs, and those who visit the stalls generally, pick out the plump 
white-skinned squabs in preference to the plump dark-skianed ones. As 
a rule, squabs from Homei pigeons are white-skinned — ^the dark-colored 
squab is an exception. 

Many beginners wish to know if it will be all right for them to 'buy a 
flock and keep it in one house for six months or a year, paying no atten- 
tion to the mating of the young birds, but leaving that to themselves, so 
as to get without much trouble a large flock before the killing of the 
squabs for market begins. Certainly, you may do this, providing extra 
Hest-boxes from time to time until your squab house has been filled with 
nests; then you will have to provide overflow quarters. We are asked if 
the flock will not become weakened by inbreeding, that is, a brother bird 
mating up to a sister, by chance. According to the law of chances, such 
matmgs would take place not very often. Pigeons in a wild state, on the 
face of a cliff, or in an abandoned building, would mate by natural selec- 
tion. The stronger bird gets the object of its affection, the weaker one is 
killed off or gets a weaker mate, whose young are .shorter-lived, so the in- 
evitable result is more strength and larger size. Nature works slowly, if 
surely. A lot of pigeons in one pen mating as they please when old enough 
is t'he natural way, and if you follow this, you cannot go very far wrong. 
We advocate matings by the breeder because it hurries Nature along the 
path which makes most money for the breeder. We all know how Darwin 
studied natural and forced selection of pigeons. He took one pigeon with 
a certain i)eculiarity, say a full breast, and mated it to another pigeon with 
a full breast. The squabs from these birds, when grovrn, had breasts 
fuller than their parents. Then these in turn were mated to full-breasted 
pigeons from other parents, and the grand-children had even larger 
breasts. Darwin's experiments covered a period of over twenty years 
and in this time he developed little faults and peculiarities to an amazing 
degree. Every intelligent, careful pigeon breeder is striving l>y his forced 
matings to push along the path of progress the peculiarity in pigeons 
which is his specialty. The breeder who selects most carefully and keeps 
«t it the longest wins over the others. By selecting from your best and 
Oiost prolific breeders the biggest and fattest squabs, keeping them for 



50 National Standard Squab Book. 

breeders and mating so as to get something larger ami plumper, you are 
all me time getting bigger squabs. Every breeder of squabs has it in bis 
power to increase the eiBciency of his flock by studying his matings. 
There is commercial satisfaction in breodmg for size and plumpness be- 
cause it pays at once, and at the same time the breeder has the satisfac- 
tion of int-reasiug the stamina and variety of pigeons. 

To be master of the matings, the breeder should band his squabs. As 
soon as they are Aveaned (that is, as soon as the breeder sees them flying 
to tiie feed and eating it) tJiey should be taken and put into a rearing 
squab-house. When about six months old, the breeder should begin mat- 
ing them by selection, using the mating coop, then vv'hen they are mated 
turn the pair into a working pen with other adult birds. By looking at the 
number on the band of each bird, then on your record card, you know how 
to avoid matuig up 'bi-other and sister. 

When the young birds are just over four weeks old, or between four and 
six weeks, they are able to fly a little, and if they do not hop out of the 
nest (or are not pushed out by the parents) you may push them out your- 
self. They are now able to feed themselves and you should provide an 
auxiliary feeding trough in the squab house for them. If these young 
birds are left in the squab house, they will bother the old birds by begging 
for food, and this infantile nagging will hinder the regular breeders in 
their next hatch, so the very best thing to do is to put the young birds by 
themselves in a rearing housf, where they cannot bother anybody. 

Of course there is likely to be a little inbreeding when you leave the 
birds to choose for themselves, but not :nuch. If the breeder has not the 
time to make forced matings, then he may not care to make them. Re- 
member in mating that like begets like. The parent Jbird that feeds its 
young the most, and most often, will raise the biggest squab. Sometimes 
a parent bird will have fine nursing abilities and will stuff its offspring 
with food. These good-feeding qualities are transmitted from one genera- 
tion to another and are as much under the ■control of the breeder as size 
and flesh-color. Your biggest squabs will be found to have an extra-atten- 
tive father or mother, or both. A pigeon with a dark skin, if mated to a 
white skinned bird will produce a mulatto-like squab. It is the large, fat, 
white-fleshed squab which you are after. Disregard the color of the 
feathers when mating. If when plucking your squabs you come across a 
"nigger," that is, a squab with a dark skin, find out what pair of breeders 
it came from and whether the cock or the hen is at fault, and get rid of 
the faulty one. It is important to start with adult birds that are not re- 
lated, then you will not begin inbreeding. That is why we make a 
special effort wnth our adult birds to have them unrelated. 

Some letters from customers make plain to us that a clear knowledge of 
what inbreeding means is not possessed by everybody. Several have 
written to this effect: "If I buy two or three dozen pairs from yon to 
start, how can I increase the size of my flock without inbreeding ' Now, 
inbreeding, or breeding in, is the opposite of breeding out (or line breed- 



National Standard Squab Book. 



51 



jng). When (1) a brother is mated to sister or (2) a father to a daughter, 
or (3) a mother to a son, or (4) a grandson to his grandmother, etc., that 
is inbreeding. We know it is forbidden by law for human beings to mate 
in that manner, because (a) God in the Scriptures has forbiddeB it, and 
(b) because the State does not wish to have to care for the puny, weak- 
minded offspring that would result from such unions. We all know that 
the marriages of cousins often result in demented, diseased children. Now 
suppose you buy two dozen pairs of pigeons of us, and number them Pairs 
1 to 24. If you mate the offspring of Pair 2 (or any other pair) to the off- 
spring of Pair 1 (or any other pair) that is outbreeding. What you do 
not do, and what you ti-y to prevent, is the mating of the offspring of 
Pair No. 1 (or any other pair) to each other. So, you .see, if you have 
a dozen or two pairs, you need never iabreed, for there is an infinite 
variety of matings possible. Breeders of animals sometimes inbreed pur- 
posely in order to get bettor color of fur or plumage, or finer bones, etc., 
hut what is gained in these respects is lost in size and stamina. Fowls 
hatched from studied inl^reedings often are so weak that their progi'ess 
across the barnyard is like the tottering, falling progress of a drunkard. 
There are no brothers and sisters in the flocks we sell. If you buy one 
dozen or twenty dozen pairs of breeders of us, the pairs "will be unrelated, 
and you need never inbreed. 






Two Views of our Homers. 

The Homers we sell are extremely plump and full-breasted and breed the fattest and lughett- 
priced squabs in the market. 



OHAPTEK VII. 
INCREASE OF FLOCK. 

It Is Possible to Breed One I'air of Squabs Each Month, but in Actual 
Practice This Is Seldom Attained— The Squab Raiser with Pure 
Thoroughbred Homers Should Count on Eight or Nine Pairs of 
Squabs a Year— The Common Pigeon Breeds^ Only Four or Five 
Fairs of Siiuabs a Year, But Eats as Much or More Than the 
Homer — Differences Between the Homer and the Common Pigeon — 
Good Homers Scarce and the Market for Them Firm and Steadv. 



It is theoretically possible for a pair of pigeons to bre;d twelve pairs 
of squabs a year, for it takes only 17 days for the eggs to hatch, and 
the hen goes to laying again when the hatch is only two weeks old. 
So, if you start with 12 pairs of Homer pigeons, and they should 'breed 
one pair of squabs a month, at the end of the first mouth you would 
have 24 squabs; at the end of the second month, 48 squabs; at the end 
of the third month, 72 squabs; at the end of the fourth month, 96 
squabs; at the end of the fifth month, 120 squabs. Now the first lot of 
squabs which your birds hatched will be ready to mate and lay eggs, 
so at the end of the sixth month you should have 168 squabs; at the 
end of the seventh month, 240 squabs; at the end of the eighth month, 
336 squabs; at the end of the ninth month, 456 squabs; at the end of the 
tenth month, 600 squabs; at the end of the eleventh month, 768 sq'uabs, 
and at the end of the twelfth month, 960 squabs. Such figures are purely 
theoretical and are seldom attained in actual practice. It may be called 
the standard, the ideal, to which we are all working. You will have 
some pairs in your flock which will raise ten and eleven pairs of squabs 
a year, but the average will be eight or nine pairs of squabs a year. 
If you get only six or seven pairs, your flock is not pure thoroughbred 
Homers, or yoiir feeding and nesting arrangements are wrong. In our 
visit to the New Jersey squab country, in the summer of 1902, we asked 
every squab breeder with whom we talked how many pairs a year he 
was getting from his birds, and about all of them said seven to nine. 
This expenence corresponds with ours. We remember particularly an old 
gentleman. Preacher Hubbell, in A^'ineland, who had been in the squab 
business for jears but was just going out of it, having sold his place, 
pigeons and all, to a Swede farmer. He told us he had always made 
squabs pay him and that his birds, of which he kept a careful record, 
raised him nine pairs to the year right along. 

It is a well-known fact that the common pigeon will bi-eed only four 

(S3) 



54 National Standard Squab Book. 

or five pairs of sqna'))s a year, and if handlers of big flocks of common 
pigeons like Johnson of California can make a uet profit of $1 per pair 
a year from such low breeders, we think anybody of no experience is 
justified in believing our statement that our Homers are capable of earn- 
ing a net profit of from $2 to $3 per pair a year, taking into account not 
only their fast Ijreeding qualities, but the superior size of the squabs. 
Here in New England we consider the common pigeons inconstant and 
Lappy-go-lucky breeders. In the vernaculai- of the squab breeder they 
are called an epithet which is applied to a female of no morals. They 
are not in the .same class at all with the Homer pigeon. 

The common pigewj, the pigeon which flies the streets of our cities and 
towns, is a mixture of all kinds of pigeons, and it partakes of the faults 
of each, and not of tlie virtues. Its outward appearance is large, but it 
is an efl^ect of feathers and not of flesh. Its feathers are loose and fluffy 
and its muscles soft and flabby. Its head is .smaller than that of a 
Homer, the deficiency 'being marked in the curve of the skull which 
covers the brain. The Homer has the largest brain of any variety of 
pigeon, and discloses this fact by its behavior. It has more sense and 
behaves with more Jntelligence. Its wonderful homing instinct marks 
it above and beyond all classes of pigeons and it is this quality which 
gives it a commercial value all over the world. The feathers of the 
Homer are laid close like a woman's glove and the muscles under it feel 
as hard and firm as a piece of wood. Its breast is firm and well pro- 
tected, with just the right amount of fullness. Its chest as large, indicat- 
ing good lung power and staying qualities. Its wings are trim and 
shapely, in flight the poetry of motion. The poise of its body and head 
reminds one of a racehorse listening for the signal to speed over the 
course. The lines from the neck to the body descend in a long, grace- 
ful sweep. Put a thoroughbred Homer into a flock of common pigeons 
and even a novice, if told to pick out the bird which would fly the fastest 
and fur'. best, would pick out the Homer. The Homer has a long bill Obut 
not so long as the Dragoon pigeon). The bill of the common pigeon is 
short. Its bill is more hooked and is shari)er pointed. Its head ds shorter 
and more rounding on top. 

The common pigeon is seldom bred in captivity, because it does not pay 
for the grain which it consumes. If bred in a wild state, it picks up a 
living in the neighborhood, the owner not keeping it wired in. It is the 
cheapest kind of a pigeon, and thousands of pairs are used by trap shoot- 
ers. Undertakers sometimes buy the white common pigeons in order to 
liberate them at graves, to signify the ascent of the soul to heaven. Com- 
mon pigeons Avill live anywhere, do not get attached to any 'home, but a 
Homer never forgets the place where it w-as bred and will search out its 
home in long flights. Common pigeons will alight on any building and 
will drink from different springs and wells, fouling them and making 
themselves a nuisance in a neighborhood. The Homer will alight only 
on its own squab house and drink only at its own home. Common pigeons 



National Standard Squab Book. 55 

sell for fifty cents a pair and are frequently offered as Homers. Do not 
start with common pigeons and think to learn the habits of squab Tjreeders 
with them. If you cross a common with a Homer pigeon you will take 
away the good qualities of the Homer and add nothing. There is not 
one demerit in a common pigeon which if added to a Homer would im- 
prove the ofl'spring. It is hard to convince some people that there is any 
difference in pigeons whose feathers are the same color. The result is 
they buy the cheapest they can get. After feeding them for a time and 
getting no profitable results, they are compelled to sell them to the first 
trap shooter who comes along, and they go among their townspeople de- 
clariag that the pigeon l>u.siness is no good. Remember this point, that if 
yoTi are going to buy grain and feed it to anything so as to get a profit, 
it is the best policy to feed it to that grade of animal which will show the 
largest profit. Very few people are satisfied with shoddy suits now^a- 
days, even if they look almost as well as the all-wool garments. It is 
the wear which the customer is after. Beware of shoddy pigeons. Buy 
the best Homers you can get, they will wear best and give you the most 
pride. Experienced poultrymen do not go here and there looking for 
fowls at cut prices. They buy breeding stock of a reliable breeder which 
is reliaible and sold at a price which will enable the seller to deliver a 
high quality article. We can tell pretty well when an order for our 
breeding stock comes from an old poultry man, for they all write: "I 
want the best stock you can give me." 

Good Homers do not glut the markets. They are always fairly scarce, 
a'ld the price for them has always been well kept up. Beware of cheap 
Homers for sale at cut prices. There is always .something the matter 
with such birds. They have been worked too long and are played out, 
or if a flock is offered "at a bargain," the birds do not produce the large, 
plump. No. 1 squab, but only culls. If a squab breeder is going to quit 
the business and offers you his flock of birds on the bargain counter, 
make him give a good reason to you for selling. If he has been unable 
to make the flock pay, you may be sure that you will >be unable to make 
them pay. If he offers them to you without a good reason for selling, 
the chances are that it is a poor flock and he has got tired of buying 
grain for them, and wishes to saddle the burden on you. We are always 
selling breeders and it is very much to our interest to protect our repu- 
tation by sending cut only good Homers that will make money for their 
owners, and this is what we do, and our large business has been built 
up by square dealing, and knowing the business thoroughly. 

A pair of Homers capable of earning a pair of squabs in one month 
which will sell for at least 50 cents is worth more than $1 or $1.25 a pair. 
A pair of birds capable of earning only a ten-cent or twenty-cent pair of 
squabs once m two or three months is worth only 50 cents a pair. Jersey 
cows are worth more than common cotvs because they earn more. Good 
Homer pigeons, bred skilfully, are woith more than poor Homers because 
they earn more. 




^ a a^ 



CHAPTER VIII. 

KILLING AND COOLING. 

Kill the Squabs iu the Morning When ']\heir Crops Are Empty— Not 
Necessary to Use a Knife, Their Necks May Be Tweaked— Drive 
the Animal Heat Out of Their Bodies by Hanging Them from Nails 
—The Ideal Squab When Shipped Has an Empty Crop. Its Feet 
Have Been Washed Clean, and No Blood Shows— Sorting Squabs 
So as to Get the Highest Price from the Dealer. 



The time to kill the squabs is in the morning, when the crops are empty.) 
In killing them it is not necessary to use a knife. Hold each squab in 
the manner shown in the illustration and break the neck with a sudden 
pull and push. Do not pull too hard or you will sever the neck from the 
body. Some of our customers have hard work to get this knack of tweak- 
ing the necks and prefer to wring the necks, or to use a knife. To wring 
the neck, hold the squab by the head in the right hand and throw the 
body around m a complete circle, this act twisting and 'breaking the neck. 

After the squabs are killed they must be cooled. In other words the 
animal heat must be driven out of their bodies. Provide a piece of board 
or studding eight or ten feet long and every four inches along this stud- 
ding drive a couple of nine-penny wire finish nails close together, but not 
so close that you cannot squeeze in the legs of the squabs. A finish wire 
nail has no large head like an ordinary wire nail. Suspend the studding 
from the ceiling by means of wire adjusted at both ends of the studding. 
This method of hanging it up is to prevent rats and cats from climbing 
up onto the studding and walking along it and eating the squabs. Place 
the feet of the squabs between the wire nails and let them hang down- 
wards over night. In the morning the heat will be all-out of their bodies 
and you can pack and ship them. If you are delivering plucked squabs 
to market, you do not need such an arrangement, but will throw the 
bodies into a tub of ice water (or cold spring water) after you have 
nlueked them. 

Ignorance of how to cool the killed squabs properly has discouraged 
many a squab raiser. If you throw the squabs in a pile on the floor 
after yon have twf^aked their necks, you will have a fermenting mass 
and the following morning, when you are ready to ship, many of the 
bodies will 'be dark-colored at the place of contact with the floor, or with 
other squabs, and decay will start from such discolored places. Hang 
the bodies from the studding, as we have described, and you will cool 

(57) 




iNCORIiKi 



I'osirioN OK Hands. 




Correct Position of Hands. 



A squab is killed for market wlien it is plump and well feathered, usually when four weeks 
old, although many are ready for market when a day or two over three weeks old. Hold the 
hands close together on the neck, as shown in the bottom picture and break the spine of the 
bird by pulling firmly and then pusliing back. Do not put so much strength into the operation 
that you pull the head from the body. This method of killing is faster and neater than using 
a knife. 



National Standard Squab Book. 



59 



them just right and you will be surprised that this part of the business 
ever could have discouraged anybody. 

If you number the nails which you have drivea into the studding, you 
will know just how many squabs you bang up, and you will not have 
to handle the squabs a second time to count them. 

The ideal squab which brings the highest price in the maricet is not 
only large and plump, but has a clean crop, so that no food will be left 
in it to sour. No blood shows anywiiere on the body and its feet are 
clean. Ship dii small quantities, especially in the summer. Do not pack 
in an enormous box, or the bottom layers will suffer. 

A squaib should he killed, as we have stated, when from three to four 
weeks old, most generally at four weeks. Do not wait until it is five or 
six weeks old, when it may have left the nest. As soon as a squab is 
old enougli to get out of the nest and walk around on the floor of the 
squab house, it quickly trains off its fat and grows lean and slender. 
Its flesh also loses its pure white color and takes on a darker shade. 
You do not want either of these two conditions. 

If you tie up your killed squabs by the feet when shipping to market, 
do not tie a lean with a fat squab, for if you do the dealer probably will 
give you the price of the lean one. Put the fat squabs in one bunch and 
the lean squabs in another bunch. If you are shipping to two dealers, 
you can very often get the top price from both by giving one your' best 
squabs and the other your second best. 




Fill this berry crate with nesting material (straw cut into si.x. iucli lengths, and hay, mixed 
about equally) and place it in centre of squab house. The cover prevents the birds from fouling the 
nesting material. They stick their bills tlirougli the slata, select the v^isps they want, and fly to 
nests. 




Killed Squabs Hung to Cool. 

After the squabs have been killed they should be hung as this picture shows to cool. The 
wooden scantling or studding is several feet long and is suspended from the ceiling at its ends 
by wire, so that cats and rats cannot climb to the squabs. A pair of nails are driven in four 
incheB apart and the squabs' legs set in between them. 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE MARKETS. 

Squabs with the Feathers on Taken by the Boston and Some Other City 
Markets— The New York Market Wants Them Plucked and Pays 
the Highest Price of Any Nortliera City — Interpretation of Quota- 
tions of Squabs as Seen in the Newspapers — White-Fleshed Squabs 
Are Wanted, Not Dark-Fleshed. 



The Boston market, and the market in some other cities, will take 
squabs with feathers on. It is only necessary for you to tweak the necks 
of the squabs and send them to the train, after they have cooled over 
night. Some shippers do not take the trouble to box the killed squabs, 
but tie their legs together with string and send them along to market. 
In the baggage cars of the trains running into Bostoa you will sometimes 
see strings of squabs going in to the commission houses in this way. 

The New York market wants the squabs plucked. The squab breeders 
who have large plants and who ship to the New Y'ork market employ 
pluekers and pay them by the piece. A skillful plucker will strip feathers 
from squabs at the rate of ten to twenty squabs an hour. The proper 
time to pluck the killed squab is immediately after killing. When picked 
clean, throw the squab into cold water and leave it there over night to 
plump out and harden the flesh. la the summer use ice water. 

The squab puts on more feathers than Hesh during the last few days of 
its growth and if you see squabs whicl are only three weeks old, but 
which are of good size, you may save a week on feed by killing the squab 
at that age and plucking it. When the feathers are off of it, it looks like 
the four weeks' squabs which have not matured so rapidly. 

If you are shipping to the New York market, you should pack your 
squabs in a neat white wood box, printed if you please. Do not use a 
pine box for if you do the odor of the pine will penetrate the squabs. 

The New York market for squabs is the best in the north. Squabs 
delivered by our customers there invariably bring from $1 to $1.50 per 
dozen more than in the Boston market. This is because there are more 
rich people in New York than there are in Boston, and they are more 
free with their money in providing luxuries for their table than Boston 
folks. AVe do not mean to disparage the Boston market for squabs, which 
is always good, averaging .$3 a dozen, hut we wish to emphasize the fact 
that the New York market is a phenomenal one. Anybody living near 
New York can make a fortune raising squabs. Our largest orders have 
come from customers who are shipping to New York. 

(60 



62 National Standard Squab Book. 

Not all the New York newspapers print market quotations of squabs. 
The New York Evening Sun is an exception. AM through the winter of 
1901 and 1902 squabs were quoted iu the Evening Sun at $5 a dozen. This 
means that a squab breeder shipping to New York should have got $6 
and $7 for a choice product from private customers. 

A correspondent in New York state sends a clipping from the New- 
York Tnilauno's market columns and asks for an interpretation. We 
quote from it as follows: 

"Pigeons, 20c.; squabs, prime, large, white, per doz., $3.50 and $3.75; 
ditto, mixed, $2.75 and $S; ditto, dark, $1.75 and $2." 

The quotation, "Pigeons, 20 cents," moans 20 cents a pair for common 
old killed pigeons. These tough old birds are occasionally found in the 
markets and are worth only 10 or 15 cents apiece. They are neither squabs 
nor the old Homer pigeons, but are common pigeons such as fly in the 
streets. A small boy might get a pair of these street pigeons and kill 
them and give them to a butcher who would pay him 15 or 20 cents 
a pair. These cheap pigeons come into the eastern markets largely from 
the West in barrels and are sold to Boston commission men for five cents 
apiece, or 50 cents a dozen. They are retailed at from $1 to $1.20 a dozen. 
They are in the Chicago market masquerading as .squabs. They have 
been killed with guns and have shot in their bodies. If you ask for pigeon 
pie at one of the cheap Boston restaurants, you will get a shot or two 
against your teeth with mouthfuls. After every trap-shooting contest 
some skulker goes over the field and gathers up all the killed and maimed 
birds he can find, and sells them for two and three cents apiece, or for 
anything he can get, and these find their way into the markets. The 
cruel practice of pigeon shooting by miscalled "sportsmen" on Long Island 
is quite common, and the presence of these birds in the New York butcher 
shops accounts for the above quotation in the Tribune. It is unnecessary 
to add that such birds do not compete with squabs. They can be made 
palatable only by stewing for hours in a pie, which takes out a little of 
their tonghness. There is now a law in New York foi^bidding pigeon 
shooting. 

As to squabs, the quotation, "Prime, large, white, per dozen $3.50 and 
$3.75," is for the kind of squa'bs that are raised from our Homers, namely, 
No. 1 grade. 

By the quolation, "Mixed, $2.75 and $3.00," is meant that these amounts 
are paid for lots of birds composed of No. 1 and No. 2 grades, mixed. ^ If 
you sort up your "birds carefully you will be able to get the No. 1 prices 
for all. Some people do not know how to sort them, and they have to 'be 
satisfied with the price of a mixed lot. 

By the quotation. "Dark, $1.75 and $2.00," is meant the dark-fleshed 
squabs, as you have learned by reading our Manual. Squabs whose flesh 
is dark do "not sell for as much as the wh'te-fleshed squabs. 

Pigeons are of all colors, i. e., as you see their feathers, and the squabs 



National Standard Squab Book. 6:^ 

likewise, but when you pluck the tVathers off the tiesh is either a pure 
white with a tiiage of yellow or dark like a negro's skin. 

Quotations for squa'bs as found in the market reports iu the news- 
papers are always lower than they really are. The writers of the market 
columns in the daily papers see only the commission men aad cater only 
to them; they smoke the commission men's cigars and believe what the 
commission men tell them. They do not see the producer at all. The 
object of the commission men is to get the squabs as cheap as they can. 
When you are breeding squabs make up your mind to get from 25 cents 
to $1 or more per dozen than you see quoted in the market reports. At ; 
the same time the report quoted above was printed iu the New York 
Tribune a breeder in Mauricetowu, N. J., was getting from $4.25 to $4.50 
a dozen for his squabs. (This was the last week in January, 1902.) You 
see, it does not pay to trust wholly to the market reports iu the news- 
papers. The motive of the city men is to get their goods as cheap as they 
can. It is your motive to get as much a? you can, and don't 'be fooled by 
second-hand information. Go direct to headquarters yourself in person 
and learn the truth. If the middleman tries to hold down the price to 
you, go to a consumer and make your bargain with him at top prices. 

A breeder in New jersey writes that there are several squab breeders 
iu Luis town, all of whom give their regular time to other businesses. He 
continues: "I am now (February, 1902), getting 32 cents each as they run, 
no sorting, for what few squabs I am now raising, and they are sold to 
a man w'ho calls every Tuesday for them. When I have enough, I ship 
direct to New Y'ork by express. They sort them in New York." 

This is doing extremely well for imsorted squabs. It is only another 
bit of evidence which proves the money-making condition of the New 
York market. (The above correspondent's breeders are not first-class, he 
admits, saying he has been breeding for seven years and his flock has 
run down.) 

The Kansas City market does not yet know what a fat squab is. The 
only things obtainable there are the squa'bs of common pigeons, which 
are quoted low, as they are all over the country. A correspondent in 
Atchison writes: "I wrote to the Kansas City dealer again, telling him I 
thought his prices were pretty low for Homer squabs. He replied that 
they had so few Homers offered that they did not quote them, and they 
would be worth from $2 to $2.50 per dozen. He quoted common pigeon 
squabs at $1.25 to $1.75 per dozen, as I wrote you before. That is better, 
and I want to try raising them as soon as I can get into a place w^here I 
can handle them." 

Fact is, the squabs that bring from $3 to $5 a dozen east of the Missis- 
sippi will bring that (and more) as soon as the wealthy trade of Kansas 
Citv get a taste of them. 

Find out for yourself whether your market wants squabs with the 
feathers on or off. We do not know such details about the squal) market 
m every city in the country and cannot advise you accurately on thi? 
point if you write to us from n distant town or city. 



CFI AFTER X. 
PIGEONS' AILMENTS. 

Cauker a Filth Disease Which Makes lis Appearance iu Nasty, Cramped 
and Crowded Quarters— It ds a Captivity Disease and a Sure Cure 
for It is to Turn the Bird Loose to Get a Chaoge of Food and 
Plenty of Exercise— A Flock Supplied with Pure Food and Clean 
Water Never Will Be Sick— Canker is Not Epidemic— It Does Not 
Pay to Dose a Sick Pigeon, Better Turn It Out to Get Well. 

The principal ailment met with by the squab breeder is canker. This 
ailment is a puzzle to some breeders and they are alarmed when it makes 
an appearance in their flock, as it does if the feed is poor or sour, the 
water dirty, or the squab house filthy. The advice which they give 
when they find a cankered bird is "Kill it." That is the advice we used 
to give at first, but now we know better. First, what ds canker? It is 
a disea.se of which you know the cause (filth, poor feed or dirty water) 
and whose symptoms you see in the form of a cheesy-like deposit in the 
mouth of the pigeon, and breaking out around the bill. Catch the pigeon, 
hold it in your lap and force open its bill and you will see a yellowish 
patch or patches in the mouth, and the mouth will usually be filled with 
a yellbwish deposit which smells bad. The disease is not .serious. The 
trouble lies with the feed and the filth and that is what spreads the 
same symptoms from one pigeon to another. A case of cauker in your 
flock should be a warning to you that the feed is wrong or water is 
wrong, or that you have a filthy house. Do not get alarmed and kill the 
bird. Catch the affected pigeon and carry it out of your flying pen and 
squab house and throw it into the air. The bird may fly away and lose 
itself, and if it dots you are out one pigeon just as if you had killed it. 
The chances are, however, as in the case of any sick animal, that it will 
linger aroimd home. Now you will be surprised to see how quick that 
pigeon's health will improve. Not having a steady supply of food before 
it, it will have to hustle for a living, and this exercise and the change of 
living, and the scanty living, will effect the cure. It will get more fresh 
air, aud a great deal more exercise, and more sun, than it would get if 
left in company with the other birds. In about a week you will notice 
that it will hold its bill tighter, and if there is a sore on the outside of 
the bill you will see this sore dry up. In two weeks the chances are 
that the yellowish deposit on the interior of the mouth will^ he entirely 
gone. The pigeon will hover around the other pigeons. It will fly to the 
outside of the netting and look at its fellows. Place a dish on the ground 
(64) 



National Standard Squab Book. 65 

now and then with a litrle feed and you will attract it. Gatch it when 
you have a favorable opportunity either with a net on the end of a pole, 
or with a broom, pinning it into a corner. You may have to try several 
times, but you will get it after a while. Its eye will be brighter and 
signs of disease will be gone, and you can put it back into the squab 
house with the others. The exercise, sunlight, change of food, and scanty 
food, have made the cure. There are few pigeons so bad with canker that 
they cannot be cured in this way. For that reason we have not much 
hesitation in saying that canker is a captivity disease, caused by lack 
of exercise as well as unavoidable filth and too much of the wrong kind 
of feed. We have observed wild pigeons in the streets and we never 
saw a case of canker among them. You may say to yourself that it is 
quite a risk to throw out into the open air a pigeon which has cost you 
from 75 cents to a dollar, but it is better to do this than to take the 
advice of all other breeders and books and kill it. 

Powdered alum sprinkled in the drinking water now and then will tend 
to ward off canker from a flock. 

It does not pay to dose sick pigeons, because a cure seldom is obtained 
by dosing, and you are out your time. The only remedies you need are 
powdered alum and common brown ginger. The brown ginger is for the 
purpose of counteracting any tendency to diarrhoea which you may ob- 
serve. Sprinkle it in the drinking water. 

The squab breeder who follows the advice as to feed and water, and 
cleanliness of squab house, given in this Manual, will not have any sick 
pigeons. It is so very easy to keep a pigeon in perfect health that the 
fear of disea.se is a bugbear not worth taking into account. The element 
of disease is a constant source of woriw to the chicken breeder, and a 
source of heavy loss to the best of them. We wish to assure all who 
contemplate starting in the squab breeding business that the pigeon nat- 
urally is a healthier and more rugged bird than the domestic hen and that 
positively you will not be fussing with remedies and curealls, in handling 
them. 

"Going light," or wasting away, is an ailment of pigeons occasionally 
met with. The cause of it is an absence of grit and salt. If your staples 
of feed are provided as we tell, and you give a variety of feed, and you 
provide grit and oyster shells, you will have no cases of "going light." 
The disease is known by a steady wasting away of the pigeon. Catch 
it and you feel a prominent breast bone, and scanty flesh, showing that 
some element in the feed is lacking. 

The principal cause of these ailments of pigeons, next to filth, is too 
much corn. Corn is carbonaceous and produces fat, which heats the 
blood and lays the system open to disease. 



CHAPTER XI. 
GETTING AHEAD. 

Make Your Birds Pay for Themselves as They Go Along, Unless You 
Wish to Wait Patiently Until a Small Flock Increases to a Large 
One — Better to Take the Money Made from Sale of Squabs and 
Buy More Adult Birds than to Raise the Squabs, Because It Is a 
Uong Jump from Four Weeks (the Killdag Age) to Six Months, at 
Which Age the Birds Begin Breeding — Shipping Points. 



It is the birds and not the buildings which count in squab raising and 
if you have $50 to start, put $35 or $40 into your birds and the balance 
into your building. We have had customers start with a $100 building 
and put a $10 lot of birds iuto it, continuing .to buy $10 lots of us about 
once a mouth until they had their flock to a good size, but we believe it is 
best to let the buildings folloAV the birds, and not the birds the buildings. 
In other words, let your birds earn buildings as they go along. It is 
quite a drag on a small flock to weigh it down with an expensive building 
much too large for it. 

It takes patience to look ahead to the good time coming when you are 
going to draw dividends. The time to make a squab plant pay is at the 
beginning, or near it. When you caa get fifty to seventy-five cents for a 
pair of squa'bs four weeks old, kill them and take your money. 

Put this down in your mind solid, where you will not forget it: Make 
your pigeons pay for themselves as they go. 

We s*^ll to a great many poultrymen, and we like to get their orders, 
for they have been through (he mill of raising feathered animals and are 
practical, and they are quick to see the money in squabs, and when their 
order for breediug stock comes along, it is in nine cases out of ten a large 
order, even if they have had no previous experience. They know that 
in order to sell squabs they have got to have birds enough to breed 
squabs and it is just as easy for them to spend $50 or $100 at the start 
as it is for them to spend $10 or $15 and use up $100 worth of time while 
waiting a year to begin s.?lling squabs. 

Many 'beginners are so skeptical that they do not believe squabs grow 
to market size in one month, or they have no confidence in their ability to 
feed the mature birds so as to keep them alive. They wish to make a 
Stan with a few pairs and actually convince themselves. We do not 
believe in untried hands plunging into something of which they know 
nothing, and we commend the caution of the beginner with squabs who 
wishes to feel his way and "make haste slowly" as the saying is, never- 

(66) 



National Standard Squab Book. 6*J 

theiess we know it to bo a fact that our customers who started with 
large flocks are making splendid successes, and we are not so cautious 
as we were in former books in advising a small purchase, at the start. 
The rules for breeding we have given have stood the test of time; we 
have aot had it said to us that they are misleading or erroneous, on the 
contrary, our customers write and tell us that their experience corre- 
sponds with ours, that the books are all right, and our business has in- 
creased right along. When a customer orders $200 worth of breeding stock 
of us and two months later $200 worth more (we sell to some customers 
monlh after month steadily, as their means or their iaclination permit 
them to buy> we are given a large measure of confidence, first, that people 
(many of whom we never see and who are not experts) can start with 
our writings and our breeding stock aud make a success, and second, 
Ihat all we have advised about the industry is of general and convincing 
application, and third, that it does not take extraordinary skill to make a 
success with squabs. 

We fill all orders, large or small, with equal care and thoroughaess, for 
it is just as much to our interest to please the customer and get more 
orders in the one case as in the othei-. 

There is not much choice as to what time of year a start in squab 
breeding should be made. Our customers who start in the winter have 
been exceptionally successful because then prices for squabs are at the 
top notch, aad it takes only a few sales to make a new breeder thor- 
oughly convinced to go ahead to success. We ship breeders all the year 
round. A pigeon will not break down under either stifling heat or bitter 
cold, being a remarkable contrast to all other animals in this respect. 

We fill orders in rotation aud treat customers alike, aud ship promptly. 
Frequently we get orders to ship by first returning express, and it is very 
difficult to do this. One customer in Chicago planned to start for Alaska 
with 12 pairs of our birds, but he held back his letter so that we got it 
only with two hours to fill crates and get birds to him before his de- 
Darture. We filled his order as a matter of accommodation. 

In ordering: supplies to be seat by freight, remember that it takes a 
freight shipment some time to get to destination, especially when traffic 
is congested in the spring or in the harvest season. Give us your order 
for nappies, etc., before your house is ready. 

The live breeders are shipped by us either in specially made pine crates 
or wicker coops. Large shipments for remote poiats go best in the wicker 
coops, which remain our property and are retunied to us at our expense 
by the express companies after the customer has released the pigeons. 
These baskets are expensive and are fitted with large block tin feed an«T 
water dishes. It is impossible to break them open with the roughest 
handling. The birds have plenty of room in them and arrive at their 
destination in fine condition. 

The usual fault of inexperienced shippers is that the box or crate is too 




A 1'kKTTV SnlAB IIoI SI. AM) FlVIX(. PeN. 



National Standard Squab Book. 69 

high, and too large, giving an opi»oitiuiit.v lor one hiid to pass another by 
flying over its head. If there is too much room between the top and 
bottom of the crates feathers will be rumpled and pulled out, and the 
birds by crowding, will suffocate one or two. A large, heavy crate also 
adds enormously to the express charges. It is not pleasant to buy pigeons 
and receive them in a cumbrous box weighing from 25 to 75 pounds, on 
which the express charges are more than double what they would be were 
the birds crated properly. 

If the birds are going to a point only a day or a day and a uight dis- 
tant, they need no feed nor water. If the destination is more remote, 
two tin cups, one for grain, the other for water, should be tacked to the 
inside of the crate. For a very long journey, a bag of grain should be 
tied to Hie crate. It is the duty of the express messengers to feed and 
water the birds en route, and they are so instructed by their companies. 

Do you know that live stock is transported long distances by the express 
companies at the rate charged for ordinary merchandise? For carrying 
live stock short distances, the animal rate (which is double the merchan- 
dise rate) is charged. This is a peculiar rule, and it works so that the 
buyer at a remote point gets his shipment cheaper than the buyer nearer 
us. For instance, we can ship a crate of pigeons to Chicago from Bostoa 
cheaper than we can to Buffalo. All the express companies doing busi- 
ness in the Ignited States and Canada have the same rule, which is, that 
between points where the single or merchandise rate is $2 or more per 100 
pounds, live animals, boxed, crated or caged, are charged for transporta- 
tion at the single or merchandise rate. Between points where the single 
or merchandise rate is less than $2 per 100 pounds, live animals are 
'^harged the animal rate (which is double the merchandise rate). In order 
to obtain the lowest I'ate of transportation, the value of each pigeon must 
be stated by the shipper at $5 or less. 

We have seen breeders who have been shipping live stock for years 
and they never heard of the above rule of the express companies, and also 
we have seen scores of express agents who did not know of their own 
rule, but always charged the animal rate on animal shipments. But the 
rule is found in every graduated charge book of every express company, 
and the exj)erienced express men and experienced shippers know all about 
it. If the agent in your town is ignorant of the rule, ask him for his 
graduated charge book and you will find it under the classification "Ani- 
mals." Eveo' customer of ours entitled to the single or merchandise 
rate on his shipment gets a card from us in our letter to him with the 
rule printed on it. Many express agents at local points seldom handle a 
Ifve animal shipment and do not know how to charge for it. 

A liv<> animal contract '•elease, to be signed both by shipper and expre.ss 
agent, is needed in all cases where the value of the shipment is over $5. 
If pigeons which we ship are killed in a smash-up, we can recover from 
the company. We have no hesitation, therefore, in guaranteeing the safe 



National Standard Squab Book. 71 

delivery of onr pigeons to customers. Our respousibility does not ead 
wlieu we have given tliem to the expressman. Our guarantee follows them 
as long as they are in the hands of the express company. We will put 
them into your hands safe and sound. 

Once in a while you will read of live stock and breeding associations 
getting together and complaining about the "exorbitant rates" charged 
by the express companies. The trouble is not with the rates of the ex- 
press companies, but lies wholly in the ignorance of the breeders who 
meet to complain. They simply do not know how to ship and how to talk 
to the express agents. 

"We never read the above advice as to shipping live stock in any book 
or paper. It is the product of our own experience and the information 
cost us at least $100 in excess charges before we learned how to get the 
low rate. It is worth dollars to our customers, and that is why we have 
given it here in detail. 

Killed squabs go to market at the rate charged for ordinary merchandise, 
no matter what the distance. Breeders having special customers who 
wish the squabs plucked should pack them in a clean white wood box 
(with ice in the summer) and nail the box up tight. Such shipments go 
through in splendid condition and if the breeder has a choice article, 
with his trade mark stamped on the box, he gets the fancy price. Squabs 
-which reach the Boston market from jobbers in Philadelphia and New 
York are plucked and packed with ice in barrels. Breeders around Bos- 
ton who reach the Boston market with undressed squa^bs send them m 
wicker hampers or baskets on the morning of the day after they are 
killed. 

In the graduated charge books of all the inter-state express companies 
dating from .June. 190?, will be found a special classification indexed 
under P as "Pigeons." Tell your agent to look it up in his book if you 
think he overcharges you. There it will be found that live pigeons for 
breeding are carried for the single, or merchandise rate for all distances 
for which the rate per one hundred pounds is $2 or more. For all dis- 
tances for which the rate per one hundred pounds is less than $2, the 
charge is now 1 1/2 times the mei-chandise rate, and not double it. This 
ruling practically puts pigeons on the same easy scale of charges as 
applied to common merchandise. No agent anywhei-e has a right to make 
any extra chai'ges whatever on a pigeon shipment. 

There is no duty oa our pigeons to Canada, Cuba or Porto Eko. 



CHAPTER XII. 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 

Women and Squab Breeding— Attentions of the Male to tlie Female 
Pigeon — Equal Number of Males and Females — Birds Flying Wild- 
Sale of Birds for Flyers— V^ariation in Size of Nest Boxes— How 
Squabs Are Artificially Fattened — ^Shipping to England — Training 
Flyers — A Remarkable Service for Messages Between Islands. 



Question. 1 am a woman who knows absolutely nothing of .squab rais- 
ing. Do you think I can make a success of it? Answer. Our books are 
written and printed for the purpose of telling an absolutely ignorant per- 
son just how to proceed. If you will study this Manual, until you get the 
general plan and method of procedure in your mind, there is no reason 
wiiy you cannot make a success of it. A woman is quick enough to 
puzzle out a new pattern of embroidery or a blind cooking recipe the 
terms of which arc expressed in language utterly incomprehensible to a 
man. We find that our women customers are just as quick to compre- 
hend pigeons as soon as they get started. It is necessary to have confi- 
dence, first that the birds can make money, and second, that you are able 
to handle them right. Women succeed with hens quite as well as men. 
They "take" to animals fully as well as men. The fact that you, our 
customer, are a woman, ought to encourage rather than depress yon, in 
the squab business. 

Question. I have an oUl poultry house 15 by 20 feet in size, ten feet 
high. How many pairs of pigeons can I accommodate? Answer. We have 
this question asked us many times, and our reply to all is the same. 
Sometimes the customer varies Jt by asking, How large a house do I need 
to accommodate 100 pairs of breeders? Sometimes they say they propose 
remodeling a barn loft which is 30 by 20 feet dn size. The dimensions of 
the building vary with the customer. You can always accommodate as 
many pairs of breeders as you can make room for pairs of nest "boxes. 
Fix up your building to suit yourself, and put in as many nest boxes 
as you wish. Then count youi- nest boxes and you will know how many 
birds you can accommodate. Yon must have two nest boxes for every 
pair of birds. If you have 100 nest boxes, you should order 50 paii-* of 
birds. If you have 200 nest boxes, you should order 100 pairs of birds. 
For 24 pairs of birds you will need 48 nest boxes. 

Question. How does the male bird impregnate the female bird? They 
do not seem to me to act as roosters and hens do. Answer. The human 
eye is not sharp and quick enough to follow the actions of the male bird. 



National Standard Squab Book. 73 

He mounts the female in a manner which is called "treading." A female 
occasionally will "tread" the male bird, exactly as a female animal when 
lu excessive heat sometimes will mount the male, or another female. Cus- 
tomers who had what they thought was a douibtful pair sometimes have 
written us saying that each would tread the other, and that of course 
both were males. After a while the same customer would write and say 
tliat the pair fooled him and that he had two eggs from them. The 
actions are in nine cases out of ten, of course, a positive guide, but there 
are exceptions to every rule. 

Question. (1) The legs of the pigeons you sent me are red; are they 
inflamed? (2) The droppings are soft and mushy; I am afraid they have 
diarrhoea; what shall I do? (.3) INIost of my pigeons have a warty-like 
substance on their bills, varying in size with the pigeon; how shall I get 
rid of it? Answer. (1) The red color which you see is perfectly natural. 
The legs of all Homer pigeons are red. (2) The natural droppings of the 
pigeon are soft and somewhat loose. When they have ddarrhoea the drop- 
pings are extremely watery and the tail feathers are soiled. Your pigeons 
are all right and have no diarrhoea. (3) The growth of which you speak 
is perfectly natural. It varies in size with the pigeon, sometimes covering 
the base of the bill, in other cases clinging closely to it. 

Question. Can I figure with certainty that of each pair of squabs which 
my birds hatch, one is a male and the other a female? Answer. Not with 
absolute certainty, but as a rule. It is Nature's way to provide for an 
equal number of males and females, for that is the way the species mate 
and is reproduced. 

Question. Enclosed find $10, for which please send me settlings of pigeon 
eggs to that value, and send me the balance due, if any. Answei-. We do 
not sell pigeon eggs. It is impossible to use an incubator and raise pigeons 
sujccessfully, because there is no way of feeding the young squabs when 
they are hatched. The life of squabs is nourished and prolonged from 
day to day by the parent birds, which feed them. To raise squa'bs, you 
must start 'by buying the adult breeders. You cannot start with the eggs. 

Question. It seems to me that if each pair of squabs hatched consists 
of male and female, that this couple is likely to pair when grown, being 
W'ell acquainted with each other. This would be in'breeding and would 
weaken my flock. What shall I do? Answer. It is not the plan of the 
species to mate and inbreed like this. If brother and sister mated as you 
describe, the species would be extinct after a while. They will look for 
new mates as soon as they get out of the nest and are of breeding age. 

Question. When are the young pigeoFs old enough to mate? Answer. 
From four to six months. 

Question. My birds do not know enough to go in from the roof of the 
squab house w-hen it rains. How shall I get them in? Answer. Let them 
stay on the roof in the rain if they wish. The rain will do them no harm. 

Question. Must I heat the squab house in the winter time? Answer. 



74 National Standard Squab Book. 

No. The heat from a flock of pigeons in a well-built house is cousider- 
able. Tou will get more squabs from your pigeous iu the winter time if 
you do heat your house slightly, not enough to cause much expense, but 
iust enough to take the chill off. Do not let your birds out of the squab 
house on bitter cold days. 

Question. I live in Texas and I think in this climate your squab house 
would be too warm and stuffy. Answer. You are right. Adapt the con- 
struction to your locality. The poultry houses in Texas as compared to 
those in the North are much less expensive and more open to the air, 
and your squab house should be built on the same principle. 

Question. Suppose I cool the squabs as you direct and pack them into 
a box for shipment. Shall 1 use ice? Is there any danger that the meat 
will be discolored when they arrive at market? Answer. Ice is not neces- 
sary in the fall, winter and spring. In the summer time you should use 
ice, although if the shipment is for a short distance, ice may not be neces- 
sary. In hot weather the squabs should not be killed untdl, the night 
before shipping. In the cool months you may keep them at home longer. 
If the squabs are cooled by hanging them from studding as we describe, 
there is no danger that the meat will be discolored. The object of hang- 
ing them from studding is to cool the carcasses properly so that the meat 
will not be discolored by contact. 

Question. How shall I pack the killed squabs when I send them to 
market? Answer. I^ay them into the box layer on layer, in an orderly 
fashion. Do not throw them in belter skelter. 

Question. Can I hang the squabs to cool from studding suspended in 
the barn, in the summer time. Answer. It is better to use the cellar of 
the house, or the coolest room in the house. 

Question. I do not like your idea of keeping the birds wired in. They 
are free by nature and it strikes me that they should have a chance to 
get exercise by long flights. Answer. You must keep them wired iu, or 
they may leave you. Remem.ber that the Homer is attached to the place 
■where it is bred, that is the Homer instinct. If you buy birds of us and 
on opening the crate let them fly anywhere they choose, trusting to luck 
to have them come back to you, you may be disappointed and lose some 
of the birds. Y'ou must keep them wired in all the time. 

Qne-stioD. You say your Homers are fine flyei-s. What is the use of 
my buying them of you to fly in races or to sell again as flyers, if they 
may desert me when I let them out into the open air? Answer. The 
squabs which you breed from our birds will know no home but yours, and 
they will not fly away from you. Yon can send them away, when they 
are old enough, and time their flight back to your house, their home. 
When you sell these trained flyers to others, you do not expect that they 
will try to fly them, "but that they will use them for breeders. 

Question. How large are th'^ mating coops? Answer. A convenient 
size is (wo feet long, two feet wide and two feet high. 



National Standard Squab Book. 75 

Question. My birds seem tinvid and X, am afraid to catcli them. How 
shall I go about it? Answer. Do not be afraid of hurting them. Take a 
broom and drive one where you will, finally pinning it against the side of 
the squab Jiouse, or ia a corner. Grasp at and hold its wings firmly and 
it will not struggle. Or you may make a net on the end of a pole, like 
an ordinary fish landing net, and scoop the bird into it as it flies through 
the air. 

Question. Suppose I have several squab houses, as you describe, but 
let all the birds together into one large flying pen, where they can bathe 
from one large fountain. Answer. This is all right if you do not wisii 
to keep close track of your birds. If the birds can roam from one house 
to another, there is nothiag to prevent a pair from building one nest on one 
house and then going to another house to build the second nest. 

Question. I believe 1 will put a strip of wire or piece of wood across 
the front of each nest box so as to keep each pair more secluded, and to 
keep the nests from dropping out. Answer. Don't do it. You do not 
need, and the pigeons do not like a dark, secluded nest. Don't worry 
about the nests falling out. Build the pigeon holes perfectly plain. 

Question. How many squabs shall I pack in one box when sending to 
market? Answer. Having picked out the size of the box you wish, 
fill It up close with squabs, so they will not "shuck." As to the size of 
the box, make it as big or little as you please, but do not make it any 
bigger than one expressman can handle easily. A good sdze is two feet 
square and one foot deep. 

Question. Send me two males and ten females. Answer. You mxist 
buy your birds in pairs. They pair off in this way, namely, one male to 
one female. ^ One male does not have two or three females. We have 
lieard pigeon breeders talk of having one cock which would attend two 
hens, "but never had a case in our experience. 

Question. After plucking the squab, and before sending it to market, 
do you remove the entrails? Answer. No. 

Question. In order to avoid the trouble of using the mating coop, may 
I put an equal number of cocks and hens in the same pen? Answer. Yes. 

Question. Can I discover the male and female organs by examination of 
the birds with a magnifying glass? Answer. No. You can discover them 
by dissecting the dead bird. 

Question. Suppose I build the nest boxes larger, so as to give a shelf on 
which the birds can alight? Answer. Don't do it. The bird will fly 
directly into the nest, or ontcJ the nest box in front of the nest. You do 
not need an alighting place. 

Question. Seems to me that if I start with 48 pairs of birds, I ought to 
have 96 perches. Answer. The birds do not all perch at the same time. 
While some are perching, others are on the nests, or walking on the floor, 
or are outside in the flying pen, or on the roof. Put up a few perches 
where 7*ou have room and let it go at that. 



fj6 National Standard Squab Book. 

Qnestion. Should I cover the yard of the flying pen with grit? Answer. 
No. Provide a box and keep the grit in the box. When the pigeons want 
grit, they will go to the box and get it. 

Question. Are the carrier (flying) pigeons the same breed as your 
Homers? Answer. Yes. A flying or carrier Homer is a Homer that has 
been trained to fly a long disfauce. 

Question. What is the difference between your Mated Birds and youj 
Extra Mated birds? Answer. They are our same breed of Homer pigeon. 
The Extra Mated birds will breed sQuabs wliich are bigger and plumper 
and for which you can get more money. They are our choicest stock, thf 
best which we can deliver. 

Question. What are artificially fattened squabs? Answer. An arti- 
ficially fattened squab is a .squab which has beea stuffed by hand. Take 
a syringe and fill it with fattening mixture of gruel-like consistency, open 
the mouth of the squab and force the contents of the syringe into the crop 
of the squab. Very few breeders take this trouble to bring their squabs to 
an extraordinary size. 

Question. I wished you had shipped my breeders in one large crate, then 
the express charges would not have been so much as for the two crates 
which you used. Answer. You are mistaken. An express shipment goes 
by weight and not by number of packages. The express clerks put all the 
crates going to one customer on the scales together and weigh them all 
at once and on the total weight the charge is based. They prefer to 
handle a large shipment in small packages, rather than in one large pack- 
age. 

Question. I live in England; can you ship me twenty-four pairs of your 
breeders? Answer. Yes; the transportation charges will be $4. In 
addition you will have to pay the butcher or steward of the lx)at ten 
shillings for feeding and watering the birds. Send us $6.50 in addition to 
the regular price of the birds and we will ship to you all charges prepaid. 
In shipping to Cuba and remote points in the United States and Canada, we 
do not have to pay anything extra for the feeding aad watering of the 
birds; the express charges include the feeding and watering. 

Question. What is a Runt pigeon? Please quote prices on a dozen 
pairs of Runts. Answer. A Runt pigeon is a special breed of pigeon, re- 
markable for its large size. They come all colors, as a Homer does. The 
white RuTits are an exceptionally beautiful bird and command large prices, 
as high as $6 to $15 a pair. The squabs which Runts breed weigh from 18 
ounces to 1 1/2 pounds at four weeks. If Runts bred as fast as Homers, 
they would be just the bird for squab breeders, but they are fatally slow 
in breeding, as a rule. The Homers raise two pairs of squabs to the Runts' 
one. Therefore it is of course more profitable to raise Homers. We do 
not sell Runts and do not advocate their use either as a separate breed, or 
crossed up with Homers. The large, plump, thoroughbred Homer is the 
best. 



National Standard Squab Book. 77 

Question. What is tlie diflereuce bciweeii tlie Homer and Antwerp 
breeds of pigeons? Answer. No difference. The name is nsed inter- 
changeably to apply to the same breed of pigeou. In New England we 
speak of them mostly as Homers. In New Jersey they are called more 
often Antwerps. 

Question. Can I j.eed some of my squabs by hand if necessary? Answer. 
Yes. Mix up a unishy, soft handful of grain, hold the squab in the left 
hand, close to your body, and with the thumb and tirst finger of your 
right hand force the mixture into the bill. The squab will swallow and lill 
its crop. A backward squab may be forced in this manuer. 

Question. Can you sell me twelve pairs of young Homers, about eight 
weeks old? Answer. No. It is impossible to tell the sex of pigeons ex- 
cept by looks and habits when they are six to eight months old, so we 
cannot send out mated pairs of birds under that age. Any breeder who 
undertakes to furnish squabs several weeks old in mated pairs cannot do 
so and is imposing on you. 

Question. I'lease give recioos for cooking squabs. Answer. See the 
cook books. JSquabs are generally served broiled. They should be drawn, 
singed and washed. Cut off the heads, split into two parts, season, put on 
a lump of butter and broil over a hot fire. Place close to the fire at first 
so as to brown the outside and retain the juices, then hold further away 
from the fire to complete the cooking. If roasted, leave them in a hot 
oven for thirty minutes. For roasting, sqiiabs may be stuffed with cran- 
berries or currants. Baste every ten minutes with spoonfuls of hot water 
and butter. 

Question. How shall I train the young birds raised from your Homers 
to Hy? Ans^^er. There is a large business in flying Homers and if you 
have a pen or two of trained birds you can seU them at fancy prices. 
There are homing clubs all over the country which have contests and it is 
worth while for a breeder to work for a reputation of breeding and selling 
fast flyers. The young Homers when five months old are strong enough 
to be trained to fly. Take them in a basket (having omitted to feed them) 
a mile or two away, and liberate them one by one. They will circle in 
the air, then choose the correct course. You should have left grain for 
tliem as a reward for their safe arrival home, and an inducement for their 
next experience in flying. Two or three days later take or send them 
away five miles and repeat. Next try ten miles, and so work on by easy 
stages up to 75 or 100 miles. If you have a friend in another city, you 
may send your birds in a basket to him with instructions to liberate cer- 
tain ones at certain hours, or you may send the basket by train to any ex- 
press agent, along with a letter telling him to liberate the birds at a cer- 
tain hour and send the basket back to you. If you wish to have the birds 
carry a message, write it on a piece of cigarette paper (or any strong 
tissue), w'-ap the paper aronnd the leg of the bird and tie with thread, or 
fasten with glue or a stamp: or. you may tie the tissue around one of the 



78 National Standard Squab Book. 

tail feathers. A thin aluminimi tube ooatainiiig the message may be fast- 
ened to a leg, or to a tail feather. A trap window should be constructed to 
time the arrival home of birds. This is an aperture about six inches square 
closed by wires hanging from a piece of wood at the top of the aperture 
and swinging inward, but held close to the aperture by its own weight. 
The pigeon cannot fly out but on its return home (if you have sprinkled 
grain on the inside of the house, next the wires) the bird will push the 
wire door and go in. It takes only a day or two for the pigeon to become 
accustomed to the trap. It you connect the trap with a simple make and 
break electric circuit, the pigeon on its arrival home from its flight will 
ring a bell in any part of your house or barn. When you have a record 
of the flyers, you will have a guide for mating. The majority of fanciers 
reconxniend a medium-sized Homer. A large hen should be mated to a 
small cock, or a large cock to a small hen. Instead of mating birds of 
equal age, try an old cock with a young hen, and vice versa. For vitality 
and stamina, it is best to mate birds of different colors. A pair of breed- 
mg pigeons will occupy the same pair of nests year after yeai", and they 
never Avill change mates, but you may break up an undesirable mating if 
j'ou choose and re-mate the birds according to your determination, using 
the mating coop as described. What is perhaps the best pigeon service in 
the world has been io use for seTcral years bet-ween Newton Roads, Auck- 
land, New Zealand, and the Great Barrier and Maro Tiro Islands, some 
75 miles distant. A boy of 16 years worked up the service and makes a 
large income from it. About 20 messages an hour are carried back and 
foi'th 'by the Homers. A year ago the government declared its dnteation of 
laying a cable from Auckland to Great Barrier. The project was aban- 
doned, however, as the residents of the little island decided that they were 
well pleased with the pigeons, and that a cable would not be patronized. 
The governmeut offered to buy the whole pigeon outfit from the boy 
owner, but he refused. There are from 400 to 500 pairs of pigeons in the 
service. 

Question. In the case of young birds mated up for the first time at five 
or six months of age, is it best to destroy the first eggs, or let them go 
ahead and hatch in the regular way? Answer. Let them go ahead and 
hatch and learn to feed their young. It will improve them for the next 
hatch. 

Question. Please describe the self feeder more fully and explain itL 
operation. Answer. The hopper of the feeder is V-shaped so that the 
grain will fall by its own weight to the centre at the bottom, which is cut 
away as shown in the illustration so that as the birds peck up the grain, 
more falls from the hopper. The slit where the birds eat should be about 
half an inch in width, just enough to prevent the grain from running out 
faster than it is eaten. The object of the lower steps of the feeder is to 
give the birds a chance to alight before jumping up onto the board where 
the grain is exposed. 

Question. Can I use the upper part of my hen house for pigeons anr' 



National Standard Squab Book. 79 

if so will the pigeous iateifere iu the flying pen with the hens? Answer. 
You may use the upper part of your hon house and the pigeons will not 
be harmed by the hens, nor the liens by the pigeons. It is best to build 
the flying pen iu two stories so that the pigeons canuot fly into the hen 
house to try to nest. 

Question. To save room, I would like to build my pigeon house in two 
stories. Answer. That is all right. Build the top flying pen out over 
and extending beyond the bottom flying pen if you wish to separate the 
flocks on the ground floor from the flocks upstairs. 

Question. What are the bands for pigeons' legs and how are they 
applied? Answer. The seamless band is a ring of aluminum three- 
eighths of an inch in diameter and from three-sixteenths to one-quai*ter 
of an inch in width. You cannot apply it to an old pigeon. It is put on 
either leg of a squab when the squab is four or five days old, by squeezing 
the toes of the squab through the band. As the leg of the squab grows, 
it becomes impossible to remove the baud except by cutting it off. On 
the band, before putting it on the leg of the squab, you may stamp year 
of birth and your initials, or anything you choose. We do not sell the 
bands, which are quite expensive, costing from three to four cents apiece 
as they are furnished by poultry and pigeon supply houses, and this cost 
makes them impracticable for the average squab breeder. We sell an 
outfit consisting of aluminnm tubing, dies, etc., by which the squab 
breeder may make his own bands at a cost of two or three for a cent. 

Question. Since I bought twelve pairs of you, I 'have kept a careful 
account of tlie feed and find as you state that five cents a month for a 
pair of breeders is right. Grain has been much higher than usual this 
summer (1002) and it strikes me that under normal conditions of the grain 
market the cost of a pair of squab breeders would be less than five cents 
a month, or sixty cents a year. Answer. Our figures of cost were ascer- 
tained not by "skimping" the birds, tout feeding them liberally, and our 
estimate of five cents a month for a pair is based on a lower cost of graic 
than prevailed in the spring and summer of 1902. It is possible by closfr 
purchase of gram and careful feeding to get the cost under sixty cents pej 
year per pair. 

Question. What pattern of trowel do you recommend for cleaning the 
nappies and nest boxes? Answer. The common trowel such as brick- 
layers use is too pointed. The best pattern has a square point and a stout 
blade with strong handle. With such a trowel you can clean nut the nap- 
pies and nest boxes very efi^ectively. 

Question. Can pigeons be raised on the sea coast as well as inland? 
Answer. Y"es; the Homer nigeon is descended from a variety of pigeon 
which first bred among the cliffs bordering the sea shore. 

Question. Do the squabs fly out of the nest before they are four weeks 
old? Answer. No; they look old enough to fly at four weeks, and their 
wings seem all ref.dy for use, })ut they stay in the nest and are fed by 



8o National Standard Squab Book. 

the parent bird&, aud when yon wish to kill them you hud both iu tlie 
nest ready lor you. 

Question. Your book states that i>igeoiis sometimes lay their egg/s ou the 
floor. But it does not say anything about taking the eggs and putting 
them in a nappy. Would the birds follow their eggs and accept change 
of nest from floor to nappy? Answer. No; you must leave the eggs 
where they lay them. You cau handle a nest and change eggs from one 
nappy to another, if you wish, but you cannot move eggs from one place 
in the squab house to another and expect the birds to find them and go 
on with their laying. 

Question. Do all squab breeders heat their houses in the wiuter time;- 
I mean those who do a large business like yourself. Answer. No; some 
breeders of many years" experience believe that a wann house is detri- 
mental to the health of the birds, on account of the sudden change of 
temperature from a warm house to a cold flying pen. The object should 
be merely to take the damp winter chill off the air. If you have a warm, 
tight squab house which you will close when night comes, jou will need no 
heat. 

Question. In the case of a long house,- say four units long, should there 
be wire netting partitions between the units, -so as to separate the birds 
mto four flocks? Answer. Such an arrangement is more practical than 
one long house. It is better to keep track of four small flocks than one 
large flock. You can keep account of the birds both on paper, and with 
your eyes, with more precision. 

Question. How would a cement floor for the squab house do? Answer. 
Do not have a cement floor. It will be too cold aud damp. Rats will 
burrow under it and breed. The best flooring is made of two layers of 
inch board, with tarred paper between. 

Question. How is salt cat made? Answer. Take 16 quarts of sand, 
eight quarts of slaked lime, four quarts of ground oyster shells, one pint 
of salt, one pint of caraway seeds and mix with water into a stiff mud. 
Form into bricks and set away to dry. The water with which you mfx 
should have a tablespoonful of sulphate of iron and a tablespoonfuJ of 
sulphuric acid for tonic and disinfectant. The birds peck at this mixture 
and it is believed to have a tonic and strengthening effect on them. 

Question. Shall I crowd one of the units with nest boxes, or would it be 
better to have a smaller number of nest boxes and build another unit to 
accommodate the now birds which I am going" fo 'buy. Answer. Better 
enlarge your squab house. In case of doubt, you will be on the safer side 
if you do not crowd the birds. 



APPENDIX A, 

NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK. 

Bv Elmer C. Rice. 



CALIFORNIA MARKET.— The California you do not care to deal With commission 

marliet for squabs is excellent, especially at men. 

the invalid resorts. In San Francisco it is BRANCHING OUT. — We have put some of 

not so good as at the Southern Coast places our best birds, in largest orders, for 300 to 

frequented by rich travelers. We print the 1,000 pairs, right into the heart of the squab 

following letter: country around Philadelphia, showing that our 

Poultrymen's Union of California, 413 Front ideas and our birds are all right. On Feb. 

street, Sau Francisco (Jan. 2S, 1903): "Your 9. 1903, we received the following letter from 

valued favor just received and in reply would Heacock & Hokanson, architects, of Phila- 

say that usually the quotations in the papers delpliia: 

are close to being correct, but if you desire "Enclosed please find 25 cents for a plan of 

to call and see us at any time, we will give your style of squab house. Our client in- 

you exact quotations. There Is always a forms us that you have prints showing the 

good market here for large, fat squabs. They details of house, nests, self-feeders, etc. We 

are readily selling today at 13 per dozen." have two clients who have been making some- 

SUMMEK RESORT MARKETS.— The pleas- what of a success at this work and are now 

ure and vacation resorts all over the country ready to build houses with every essential 

are good squab markets. Maine squab breed- and practical feature necessary to make ji 

ers ship to Boston in the winter but in the success on a somewhat larger scale." 

summer they get better prices at Bar Harbor SQUABS IN UTAH.— The following letter 

and elsewhere along the coast. The White comes to us from James A. Hepburn, Utah, 

Mountain resorts in New Hampshire are a dated Jan. 24, 1903: 

fine summer market, also the resorts along "Enclosed find check for $1.70 for which 
the eastern coast of Massachusetts. Newport, please send me postage paid your leg band 
in Rhode Island, is a good summer squab outfit. I recently received your book on pig- 
market. Two or three of our customers .in eons and although I have been breeding 
the vicinity of Lenox, Mass., and in North Homers for flying tor a long time, I learned 
Carolina, and Florida, are quite enthusiastic many things of interest to me from the boo.k. 
over the splendid market at their doors, j intend now to increase my flock and raise 
Wherever the good eaters go, winter or sura- squabs for the market also. I find I can sell 
mer, there is the demand for squabs. all I can supplv here to the local markets." 

HOSPITAL TRADE.— A woman in the state SQUABS NOT GAME.— A correspondent 
of Washington wrote us that two big hos- writes us that she does not think she can 
pitals in a city near her had offered to take market squabs in her state because the game 
all the squabs she could supply. She moved laws arc so strict. In reply we wish to state 
out, bought a farm and in January, 1903, we that squabs are not game, but are a domes- 
shipped her four baskets. Under date of Feb. tic product same as chickens, and can be 
7 she replied: "Please pardon my delay in marketed in any state or territory at any 
acknowledging the receipt of the shipment of time of the year in any quantity without vi,o- 
fltty pairs extra mated Homers I ordered from lating the game laws. 

you. I have been so busy with them that I CHICAGO MARKET.— The Chicago market 

have not really had time to write. Out of for squabs is fairly good, but nowhere near 

the whole lot there was only one dead one. so good as the markets of New York, Phil.a- 

•which surprised us." (As we had shipped two delphia and Boston, because the only squabs 

pairs more than the order called for, or .52 obtainable there in large quantities are the 

pairs altogether, the customer Ijad no com- inferior squabs of common pigeons. We have 

plaint.) "The birds are perfect beauties and customers in Illinois who have written us 

we are greatly pleased with them. They seem that their fat Homer squabs from our birds 

to like their new home. Thanking you for are salable at prices from $1 to $2 in excess 

yo«r kindness and with best wishes." of the prices quoted by the Chicago com- 

The hospital trade in squabs is worth cater- mission men. The Chicago market is an 

ing to, for they are such a delicacy that eager one, and the dealers are imploring 

they are greatly esteemed by physicians, squab raisers to sell, saying they will tajce 

There may be a suggestion in this for you if all offered. We advise our customers in the 

(Copyright, 1903, by Elmer C. Rice.) (1) 



2 National Standard Squab Book. 

Middle West to sell their squabs to the trade times. We assure you, and you can rely on 

direct over the heads of the Chicago comnus us to obtain the highest possible price for 

sion men until the latter advance prices. We your stoclt at all times." 

print herewith some letters from Chicago Cougle Brothers, 178 South Water street, 

commission houses, showing that they wajit Chicago, III. (Jan. 29, 1903): "Replying to 

them both with the feathers on and off, de- your favor of Jan. 27th will say that good 

pending on the dealer: fat squabs are worth from .f2 to |2.50 per 

C. B. Hayden, Jr., & Co., 214 and 216 dozen. We can handle all of that kind 

South Water street, Chicago, Illinois (Jan. you can get. The best way to ship them is 

26, 1903): "Your favor of the 24th inst. at just to pinch their necks, cool thoroughly and 

hand and in reply will say, fat dressed pack in a box. Do not bleed them nor take 

squabs bring $2 to $2.25 per dozen. We haji- the feathers off. We hope you can ship us 

die them in any quantities." some of this kind of squabs as we need 

Gallagher Bros., 191 South Water street, them." 
Chicago, 111. (Jan. 26, 1903): "We have your F. W. Melges & Co., lOU South Water 
favor of the 24th to hand and noted. In te- street, Chicago, 111. (Jan. 28, 1903): "Re- 
gard to handling squabs will say, we are in plying to your favor of the 27th in regard _to 
a position to handle any quantity to good squabs we beg to say that there is a wide 
advantage. We are now getting fancy squabs range of prices according to quality. If they 
from Wisconsin, which are selling at ?2.50 are fine fat birds we can handle advanta- 
per dozen, about seven pounds to the dozen." geously all you can ship us. We shall do all 
I C. H. Weaver & Co., 129 South Water in our power to obtain the very top price for 

street, Chicago, 111. (Jan. 29, 1903): "Your same at all times." 

■ favor of the 27th received. The market on A. Booth & Co., 63-65 Lake street, Chicago, 

squabs is $2.25 per dozen for the weights you III. (Jan. 25, 1903): "It squabs are well 

speak of. We can handle all that you wTll dressed and weigh eight to nine pounds to 

be able to ship us, but would advise making the dozen, we can use them at $2.25 per 

a small shipment at first, so that we will get dozen F. O. B. Chicago." 

an idea of your stock and dressing." H. G. Lane, buyer for the Wellington Hotel, 

Theo. C. H. Wegeforth Co., 133 South Wa- Wabash avenue and Jackson boulevard, Chi- 

ter street, Chicago, III. (Jan. 28, 1903): "In cago. 111. (Feb. 2, 1903): "In reply to yours 

reply to your favor requesting us to quote of Jan. 26th about squabs would say that we 

you prices on squabs will say that there is a are buying the large white squab you speak 

very good demand for them on this market at of. We have them shipped with the feath- 

present and when fine they will bring from ers on and market price for the best squab 

$2 to $2.25 per dozen but in order to bring is $2.75 to $3.00 per dozen." 

these prices, the squabs must be tat and William H. Taylor Co., 156 and 158 South 

weigh on an everage about three-quarters of Water street, Chicago, 111. (Feb. 4, 1903): 

a pound each, and for such there is a ready "Your letter at hand in regard to squabs. 

Bale. If you have any, or receiving, you can Would say we could use all your squabs you 

safely ship all you can get." can ship. We would just as soon have thera 

H. R. Waszko, 213 South Water street, Chi- with the feathers on as off. We can offer you 

cago, 111. (Jan. 29th. 1903): "In reply to $2.50 now for good stock. Should at any time 

your letter of Jan. 27th. we wish to say that market do better, we should certainly give it 

we can handle your squabs, in fact we can to you. Please let us know how soon you 

place any amount at the extreme top market can ship and how many each week. We have 

price, for we are heavy receivers of dressed the trade tor them and can do as well as any 

squabs, especially from South Dakota and one for you." 

Wisconsin. Squabs should weigh not less Herman Weber Co., Inc., Union Hotel and 

than six or seven pounds per dozen. Should Restaurant, 111-117 Randolph street. Chicago, 

be dry-picked as the trade that can pay m. (peb. 3, 1903): "Your favor of the 1st 

fancy prices want them No. 1, and we quote to hand. I am buying squabs fresh in the 

them firm at $2.50 per dozen, but they must market all the time and am paying $3 per 

be fancy. We think we can get you still dozen for same. You can bring in two dozen 

higher prices but we can tell from your first of your squabs and it satisfactory will buy 

shipment to us just where we can place ga^g ^f you right along." 

them and what wo can do. See that they are The letter last quoted above, that from 

well cooled oft before shipping. Trusting Herman Weber, is an indication of what 

that you will favor us with a good shipment the consumer in Chicago is paying for in- 

as soon as possible and also give us an idea ferior squabs. It rests with you whether you 

■•ot how many you can ship us daily or -^wi be satisfied with breeding a product 

jweekly." which commands a price of $2 to $3 a dozen, 

Peter Britten & Sons, 2 and 4 Fulton street, or $3 to $6. If you put squabs weighing ten 

Chicago, 111. (Jan. 30. 1903): "There is no pr^unds a dozen and over into the Chicago 

limit to the amount of squabs we can handle, market, you can get from $3 to $6 a dozen, 

'as we have inquiries for the same at all NEW YORK MARKET.— In the first part of 



National Standard Squab Book. 3 

January, 1903, we received the following let- weighing 100 pounds, transport it to New 
ter from the manager of the squab depart- York, and in that city deliver it by team to 
ment of a commission house in Washington the commission dealer for $1. In the case of 
market. New York city: a box of our squabs weighing twelve pounds 
"Your name and address as raisers of fancy to the dozen, about eight dozen and the box 
squabs was given me by Mr. Howes of De- would weigh 100 pounds. If we delivered 
troit, Michigan, who was over to your place them in New York at the price quoted, $4.50 
a few days ago. As I have heard of your per dozen (or $36 gross), we would net, de- 
plant before and have tried to get your ad- ducting his five per cent, commission and the 
dress so as to write to you for squabs, I hope $1 e.xpress charges, $33.20. The commission 
this letter will mean some business for us man would resell the squabs to his trade for 
both. If you have any squabs to ship, I $5 to $S per dozen. By a dozen squabs we 
would like to get your output, and can use all mean in this case and in all cases where 
you can ship at full market, and make you prices are quoted, twelve squabs. We do not 
prompt returns day received and sold. This mean one dozen pairs of squabs. We mean 
week I am returning the following prices: six pairs of squabs. Squabs are always 
Squabs weighing ten pounds to dozen and quoted at so much per dozen, not so much 
up, $4. .50 per dozen; eight pounds and up, 5>h per dozen pairs. 

seven pounds and up, $3.iJ0; six and one-half On January S, 1903, the New York squab 

pounds and up, $2.60; dark, $1.80 per dozen, buyer above quoted offered the following 

If you will prepay charges, account of sales prices for squabs: For squabs weighing ten 

' will be sent you same day goods are re- pounds to the dozen and up, $4.75; eight 

ceived, less five per cent, commission." pounds and up, $4.50; seven pounds and up. 

Letters like the above come to us from all $3.60; .six and one-half pounds, $2.75; dark 

parts of the country, and squab breeders and No. 2 squabs, $2. 

whom we have supplied get similar communi- On January 25th, 1903, he offered the tol- 
cations. The poultry and game dealers in all lowing prices: Ten pounds and up, $5.50 per 
Eections are after squabs all the time and dozen; eight pounds and up, $5.00 per dozej) ; 
could sell a great many more than they are seven pounds and up, $4; six and one-half 
now able to get hold of. The above letter is pounds, $3; dark and No. 2 squabs, $2.10. 
written notwithstanding the fact that in New On February 6, 1903, he offered us the 
Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania alone are same prices as last quoted, adding that tie 
today four or five thousand squab breeders, would pay $3 to $3.75 per dozen for squabs of 
many of them with large flocks of over one average weight and grade. In this letter he 
thousand pairs of birds each. In the town of said: "As I have been getting quite a few 
Moorestown, New Jersey, to take only one letters from some of your squab customers of 
case, are from 200 to 300 squab breeders. As late, I want to thank you for same, and 
we say in our Manual, people in these sec- hope to get some of their birds and prove to 
tions keep hens for their own use, but not for their satisfaction by the prices large fine 
market, for they know that squabs pay better birds will sell at, that squab raising if prop- 
than hens. Poultrymen in other sections of crly carried on is a very profitable and pay- 
the United States are fast finding this out ing industry. The demand for squabs in on 
and are putting in squabs along with poultry, the increase and will be from now on, as 
or giving up poultry altogether. In spite of the game laws of all the states are such as 
the large output of squabs from the 4,000 to to prevent much small game from reaching 
5,000 breeders in New Jersey and Eastern the several markets, where there has been a 
Pennsylvania, which go into the Philadelphia big supply of such at low prices that squabs 
and New York and Boston markets (for the will now take their place, so that new be- 
squab raisers in New England supply only ginners have nothing to fear from a glut by 
about one-tenth of the Boston demand), there over production of good-sized squabs. TUis 
is all the time a scarcity of squabs, as the we have proven to our own satisfaction when 
above letter proves. This letter comes to us we introduced the large or royal squab to our 
because we have the reputation for dealing best hotel and cafe trade in this market, dur- 
in a fancy product. There are breeders ing the past season, and it now looks a? 
of squabs who send to market an inferior though our demand will be greater this corn- 
product from small and cheap Homers, and ing season. The buyers of these large 
such squabs are not the kind which commis- birds see they are worth the difference in 
sion dealers are anxious to get. Be sure you price, that they have a better call for them 
are able to breed a fancy squab by getting once they introduce them to the sonsumer. 
your breeding stock of us. Some beginners Encourage all your buyers to invest in birds 
are anxious as to express rates, not compre- that produce large, plump squabs. It wifl 
jhending that they can ship squabs long dis- pay them best in the end and make a b°*ter 
itances at a trifling cost. The express rate demand for their grade of birds." 
/from Boston to New York is $1 per iOO On Feb. 16th. 1903, he offered us the fonow- 
I pounds. This means that an express team ing prices: Squabs weighing ten pounds to 
will call at our door, get a box of squabs the dozen and up, $6 per dozen; nine pounds, 
I 




This order, filling eighty-five baskets, was shipped by us in February, l'.)03, to a Philadelphia 
breeder of faucy poultry who visited our place and saw for himself that we have the best stock. 
It filled an Adams Express car attached to the Federal Express, the fastest train out of Boston for 
the South. 



National Standard Squab Book. 5 

$5.50 per dozen; eight pounds, $j per dozen: £or squabs is growing. I will take your 

seven pounds, $4 per dozen; six and one-iial£ squabs at marliet price day received." 

pounds, $3 per dozen; darl<, .');2.10 per dozen. C. T. Wiggins, East entrance City marltet, 

Tiie above quotations are a good indication Kansas City, Mo. (Jan. 26, 1903): "It is only 

of wliat the New Yorli raarlcet lor squabs is. a question of how many you can supply. I 

Oae ol the practical ways we have ot" can handle all the squabs you will offer and 

helping our customers is to refer tliem to will pay you good prices for them. The 

.such first-class buyers of squabs as the firm demand is strong and increasing. Hope you 

above quoted. We will give the address of will soon make a start with me." 

the above New York firm to you when you George O. Relf, steward. Midland Hotel, 

buy breeding stock of us. Kansas City, Mo. (Jan. 27. 1903): "We can 

SCRANTON MARKET.— The following let- use squabs almost any time at $2.75 per 

ter is from Chandler and Short, comriiission dozen. If you have some now we will take 

merchants, 15 Lackawanna avenue, Scranton. one or two dozen and if O. K. will very 

Penn., dated Feb. 15, 1903: "We have yours likely use them right along." 

in regard to squabs. They are worth Ewins-Dean Hotel Co., proprietors Hotel 

from $2.75 to $3 per dozen, dressed, on our Metropole (St. Joseph, Mo.) and Hotel Balti- 

market. Whatever you ship, we will en- more (Kansas City, Mo.) (Jan. 30, 1903): 

deavor to get the very highest market prices "Kindly quote me prices on squabs by the 

for. All you have to do is to have the dozen. I have been using about two hun- 

feathers picked off." dred per month and e.xpect to use more. If 

CLEVELAND MARKET.— The steward's your prices are right you will hear from me 

department of the Union Club, 158 EuclicJ i„ a few days." (Signed) E. G. Venable, 

avenue, Cleveland. Ohio, sends the follow- steward. 

ing letter under date of Feb. 13th, 1903: "I e. Klidey, the New Coates House, Kansas 

am in receipt of your letter of yesterday and city_ mo. (Jan. 29, 1903): "We are using a 

beg to say regarding your questions about few squabs which we buy from the commis- 

squabs, that they are worth to us from $3 to sion men here at -$2.. 50 per dozen. Let me 

$3.50 per dozen for the best and largest know what price you want for yours and we 

squabs either dressed or in the feather." ^ay be able to use eight or ten dozen a 

W. H. Bennett, proprietor of Oyster Ocean week." 

Cafe, 3()S Superior street, C'leveland, Ohio d. P. Ritchie, steward Hotel Baltimore, 

(Feb. 12, 1903): "I use about one and one- Kansas City, Mo. (Feb. 6, 1903): "Your favor 

half dozen squabs a week. Price averages $3 of Jan. 27 received. We pay $2.75 per dozen 

per dozen the year through." for fancy squabs delivered, with feathers 

W. H. Seager, Sheriff street market, on." 
Cleveland, Ohio (Feb. 12, 1903): "1 purchase OUR PIGEONS GOING AROUND CAPE 
squabs when offered in this market and have HORN.— Wo have sent our breeding stock 
sent to California for them on special occa- about everywhere, but one of the most curi- 
sions. The market price varies from $2.40 ous orders we ever had is from Captain Lane 
to .$4 per dozen." of the ship Kennebec, which arrived in Bos- 
Gibson Pinkett Company, Fulton market, ton in November. 1902. from Seattle, with a 
21-25 Prospect street, Cleveland. Ohio (Feb. cargo of lumber. At this writing (Feb. IS 
12. 1903): "We buy squabs and pay what 1903), Capt. Lane is making arrangements 
they are worth. Price runs from $2.50 to $4 with us to supply him with a breeding out- 
per dozen. We could use fifty dozen or more fit of our Homers, which he will instal on 
today." his ship so that on his long return voyage 

KANSAS CITY' MARKET.— The market for to San Francisco (or Seattle) he w^ill iiavo 

squabs here is steadily improving. Here are fresh squab meat regularly. Capt. Lane is 

some letters bearing on the subject: part owner of his big ship and is accom- 

From James R. Peden & Co., 404 Walnut panied by his wife and young son. He hss 

street, Kansas City, Mo. (Jan. 26. 1903): visited our place and knows about our birds 

"Send your squabs to me. I have good, and our methods. 

steady demand for them and will take all SQUABS IN NEW MEXICO.— Here in the 

you can offer. Top prices paid, or handled east we would not look upon New Me.xico as 

in commission." (Mr. Peden ships squabs a fancy market for squabs, but here is a. 

..J New Y'ork city and other points east.) letter from a customer in .\lbemarle. New 

W. M. Woods, produce company, stalls ,.12 Mexico, which proves that he is getting in- 

and 13 west side. City Market. Kansas City, terested (Jan. 29. IflOJ) : "The pigeons you 

Mo. (Jan. 26. 1903): "The market for squabs sent me on the 20th were received yesterday 

is good. Prices range from $1 to $1.50 for in excellent condition, and am well pleased 

common stock and from $1.S0 to $2 and $2.25 with them. Please find enclosed a money 

for fancy. I am sure you will find a market order for thirty dollars, for which send me 

for your snuabs and if they come up to the twelve more pairs of your extra mated thor- 

mark you have set for them, will command ouchbred adult pigeons. Ship as 'lefore by 

a much better price. Kansas City market Wells Fargo express." 




« a 

^ o 

-« a 

tie U 

•I r 



9 § 
5 ^ 






National Standard Squab Book. y 

SOUTHERN MARKET.— Our breeding Stock running constantly. Dimensions of pan, 4 
has gone to every state in ttie Soutli. If you feet 6 inches by 2 feet 10 inches, guarantee- 
live in any part of the South, you can market ing plenty of bathing facilities. They were 
stiuabs as readily as poultry is marketed, liberated after dark, but the early morning 
One of our Southern customers, who lives in will afford all the bathing facilities they will 
Citronelle, Alabama, has been to Boston to need, and we prophesy they will embrace the 
see us. Under date of January 30, 1903, he opportunities afforded at first opportunity, 
writes; "I have received Homers from two We wish to compliment you on your prompt 
others, but they do not compare with yours, methods of doing business, and on the su- 
I will build my second house very soon as periority of the birds shipped us. They were 
the first one is filling up fast." indeed high class birds, in fact, Mr. Rice, 

LONG DISTANCE SHIPMENTS.— To all they are better stock than we expected .to 

inquirers we wish to state again emphati- receive. Your sending us 4 extra pairs above 

cally that we certainly do guarantee the safe order was a graceful act on your part, one 

arrival of every bird, no matter in what part which we fully appreciate, and thank you 

of the world you live. We are learning all right here for it. Your shipment was nearly 

the time how to handle the long distance a week before we expected it, but by extra 

shipments best and experience has taught us exertion we got all ready in time and they 

little wrinkles about the baskets and the have a fine home. Express charges at $14 p.er 

arrangements of the feed and water dish.es hundred Boston to San Rafael, 270 lbs. weight 

which are valuable. The express messengers of shipment, amounted to $37.80 plus 40 cents 

get their instructions not from guesswork or for feed, $38.20 total, at merchandise rate, 

from written notices or tags, but from a Still at rate given in your circular $4 for 24 

board a foot square on which is printed in birds (12 pairs), this is too much by a 

bold type the necessary directions. This margin. $4 rate to San Francisco per 12 

■winter (1903) we have shipped every week "to pairs is not just correct, still we are not 

California. One order of 200 pairs for Santa kicking, for the difference is not very much. 

Ana, California, filled seventeen baskets. Note this, 201 birds came out of those bas- 

Of the 400 birds, only one turned up dead, kets, now we are sure, absolutely sure of 

but as we had sent along four more pairs the count; two people kept count as each 

than the order called for, we were seven bird was liberated and 201 birds came out 

birds ahead on the count. Another large of the crates. If 100 pairs are mated, what 

shipment to San Rafael, California, in Janu- will we do for that poor lone bird? We 

ary, 1903, brought back by return mail the await for suggestions; pretty tough on that 

following letter, which we print exactly as lone bird, 3,500 miles from home, but he or 

we got it, word tor word, and altogether it is she is here sure. In conclusion we thank 

one of the best recommendations for us to you for your promptness, your honesty and 

people who live at a distance that we ever your fair, square dealing and will keep you 

received: posted as to our progress as per your sug- 

"Yesterday, A. M. (Jan. 20th) at 8.30 we gestion. We thank you for the crates: they 

received your letter advising us of the ship- are fine. We wrote you yesterday and look 

ment of 100 pairs of Extra Mated Homers, on for reply in accordance with your usual 

Jan. 14th: advising also that the pigeons promptness." 

would reach us before the letter. Well, they We sent the above letter to Mr. R. H. 
did not arrive until 4.30 today, Jan. 21 (7) Dwight, agent for the Wells-Fargo Express 
seven days on the road. We notice that Company in Boston, and he was quite as 
seven days is also required to get your ship- pleased as we were. Through Mr. Dwight's 
ments to Los Angeles; and when you assume co-operation our through western shipments 
that they will reach here at or before the by the Wells-Fargo have been a remarkable 
receipt of notice of shipment we think you success. The only difficulty we have ever 
«re mistaken. Nevertheless, be this as it had on account of long distance trade came 
may, the birds reached us tonight at 5.30, when we were shipping in crates, not bas- 
•every bird in first-class shape — every indi- kets. We sent a large order into San Fran- 
vidual one being in first-class shape; giving Cisco and on the way four of the crates were 
evidence of being shipped in perfect condition broken into by rough handling and forty- 
and having plenty of feed and water en two birds got away. The Wells-Fargo Ex- 
route. Your feed ran short, as evidenced by press Company settled with us for the loss 
charges of 40 cents made by express com- of those birds and we made good to the 
pany for feed provided by them, which we customer, sending the missing birds on, and 
are only too glad to pay, and at same time the customer was out not a cent for further 
shows care and attention of express company express charges, for the Wells-Fargo people 
messengers — a good fault. Every bird in the carried the birds deadhead, 
lot is bright and active, and they come into The baskets in which we now ship cannot 
a first-class home, a fine house and flying be broken open except with the aid of an axe 
pen. plenty of feed and a galvanized iron and they can be thrown ten feet across a 
pan 6 inches deep with water 4 inches deep depot platform without being injured. 



National Standard Squab Book. ^ 

There is a minor criticism in tlie above Ivnow of liis experience. His letters are at 

letter in tiifi matter of express ciiarges. Ac- our Boston office, wliere tliey may be seen, 

cording to the figures wliicli we give in tlie We will not give his name by mail because 

circular headed "Express Rates," the cus- he is a customer, but if you think the above 

tomer should have been asked to pay about letters are made up by us, you write to the 

Sf'i'i, instead of $3V, as he did pay. We be- Boston office of Dun's or Bradstreet's com- 

lieve the hgures which we give to be correct iriercial agencies and ask tor one of their 

tn every case — the slight variation which men to be sent to our office to investigate, 

may come asi it came in this case is due to PIGEON MANURE. — Our advice in the 

the fact that no two persons will weigh up Manual as to pigeon manure has interested 

the same lot of goods exactly the same, and pigeon breeders all over the country, nearly 

that, of course, the birds vary in weight, all of whom say that they never have takea 

The weight when the shipment starts is less pains to save it, and when it got too thick 

than when it finishes, because at the end they have scraped it up as best they could 

the bottoms of the baskets are covered with and used it for fertilizer. They want to know 

manure. (The grain which we send for feed how *ve keep it pure, and all about the 

is not weighed in and charged for transpor- market, etc. 

tation.) If the waybill is lost or delayed. The pigeon breeder who does not make pro- 

and the agent at destination weighs the vision for the purity of the manure and the 

shipment, he will get a greater weight, and steady sale of it is just throwing bank bills 

consequently a higher rate, than the express straight into the fire. We have erected _ a 

employee who weighed the shipment here jn special building at our place for Just the 

Boston. manure, and take every precaution to keep 

We wish to say further that it you think the manure free from straw, sawdust, sand, 

we have figured the express rates to you too etc. The building stands at the back of one 

low, send us money which we claim to be of the long houses, and about halfway in the 

correct and we will prepay all charges, thus whole plant, so that we can reach it easily 

putting on ourselves and not on you the dif- with a wheelbarrow from the houses. There 

fei-ence. if there is any. is a slide cut in the north wall of what we 

COMMON PIGEONS AGAIN.— We have had call No. 2 squab house, and through this 

some of the old-time raisers of squabs from slide the manure is shovelled from the 

common pigeons on the ranches in the Mid- wheelbarrow (standing in the passageway) 

die West write us for more proofs that Horn- directly into the manure house, where it 

ers are ahead of common pigeons. stays until there is from $50 to $100 worth 

In reply we will print here the letter of it, when we bag it up and send it off. 

which we received in January, 1903, from, a First we take the wheelbarrow empty down 

customer as follows: a passageway and stop at a unit pen, then 

"I have for sale between four and five go into the unit pen with a bushel basket 

hundred pen fed common pigeons. Can you and scrapers. We use a trowel to clean off 

use them, and at what price? Should you the nest-pans, a tree-scraper to clean out 

not be in a position to use them yourself the nest-boxes and a hoe or a floor chisel 

probably you could refer me to some one (.same as is used to clean off snow and ice 

that is in the market for some fine pen f_ed from city sidewalks), six inches wide at the 

birds. The Homers which I purchased of blade and with a long handle so that it can 

you some time last summer are doing very be used easily while the operator is standing, 

nicely, and have to make more room for them In scraping the floor, the manure rolls up 

is the reason of wanting to dispose of iriy with little exertion off the blade of the 

common birds. Thanking you in advance for chisel. It is shovelled into the bushel 

favor asked." basket and the basket taken out into thft 

We asked him to tell us if he had not passageway and dumped into the wheelbar- 
found our Homers more profitable than com- row. It takes one man not over thirty min- 
mon pigeons. He replied as follows: , utes to clean a pen thoroughly and the 
- "In reply to yours will say that your state- product of each pen is between two and three 
inent of the Homers being more profitable bushels, or from $1.20 to $1.S0 for half 
than the common birds is true, as the fact an hour's work, which is pretty good pay. 
has been demonstrated to me in the past (We have been getting in the winter of 190.? 
five or six months, by my experience of hav- sixty cents a bushel from the .\merican Hid© 
ing the two lots side by side in separate and Leather Company of Lowell. Mass.) We 
pens. My common birds referred to are fine ship the manure by freight in bags. We buy 
birds and will sell them P. O. B. at .$2.50 per these bags when we can from farmers who 
dozen, which, taking the plumpness of the have large herds of cows and who use con- 
bird in consideration, is very reasonable." siderable grain, and they let the bags go for 

The above breeder lives in Missouri and one and two cents apiece. Second-hand bags 

■we expert to sell a good many of our Horn- in the Boston junk shops cost from four to 

ers to him and to those in his state who n'ne cents apiece. The leather people let 



lo National Standard Squab Book. 

the bags pile up and then send them back tomers to ship to Lowell. We have always 
to us in a bunch. We are particular to save found the leather people square in measuring 
not only the manure in the unit pens, but the manure, in fact they have given us credit 
in the sorting and mating cages and coops, on two or three occasions for more than we 
We cover the floors of these cages with bur- thought we had. They pay after you have 
lap, not tacking the burlap down, but sent your bill of lading and the report of 
stretching it over three finish nails tacked the measurer has gone to the New York 
at the backs of the cages and two nails office. You need not be afraid of swamping 
tacked at the front of the cages. The the leather trust with pigeon manure. They 
manure cakes and dries on the burlap as it will take all you can scrape up. They use it 
would on the floor. When there is a layer to take the hair off the raw hides, and it is 
about half an inch thick, all tramped hard, said to be the only substance which will do 
dry and odorless by the constant hammering this job thoroughly without injuring the 
of the feet of the birds, we take the burlap hide. Chemicals which are used as substi- 
off the nails and stretch it outside, bottom tutes when pigeon manure cannot be had are 
up, then sprinkle water on the back and said to be injurious to the hide, 
the manure drops off in large cakes. The We write the above to help you sell the 
burlap then is dried and replaced. This manure from your squab houses. Do not 
method saves an immense amount of time ask us to advise you further on this point, 
which otherwise would be consumed in for we cannot. If you cannot find a tannery 
scraping the floors of the cages. We have within shipping distance, try the florists. 
108 of these cages at the farm and in our We are informed that the florists' exchange 
Boston shipping room, each capable of hold- in New York city is a good place to sell 
Ing from 12 to 20 pairs of birds, and we have pigeon manure, and customers near that 
burlap carpets on all of them. We use a city have told us that they are selling there, 
large amount of burlap not only for this SQUABS IN THE POULTRY PRESS.— The 
purpose but for small grain bags to go with magazines devoted to poultry are beginning 
orders for breeders to distant points, and to take up squabs on account of the in- 
also for the floors of our shipping baskets, creasing interest shown by poultrymen in 
We buy this burlap in large rolls weighing the subject. In the Poultry Keeper for Nov. 
150 pounds and containing from 300 to 320 15th. 1902, appeared a contribution by A. P. 
square yards. We do not hem it or sew it in Spiller. After giving the general arrange- 
any way for the cages, simply cut it and in ments for caring for the birds, he says: "At 
stretching it over the nails fold the raw about four weeks of age the squabs are 
edges under. ready for market. Some markets require 

Having read the Manual, you know that we them dressed, others only killed. Good 

do not use sand or sawdust In our squab breeding pigeons will hatch and rear from 

houses, so we are able to deliver manure six to eleven pair of young a year. The cost 

which is absolutely pure. The tanneries do to keep a pair of breeders, including the rais- 

not like to get lots of impure manure and ing of the young, at the present time is 

of course pay more for the unadulterated about eighty cents a year, this, of course, 

article. It is just as easy and more business- varying some with location and cost o£ 

like to keep this by-product pure. feeding stuff. Wild game birds are becom- 

The manure in the houses has no odor, ing more scarce each year. The properly 

but when we have got it scraped up and raised squab pigeon comes nearer taking the 

banked in the manure house, it gives forth place of these wild birds than anything else, 

a pungent, ammonia-like smell. As the That they make fine eating, those who have 

manure house is entirely cut off from the eaten them can not deny. There is always 

squab houses by the slide in the passage- a ready sale for good plump squabs at 

way. this pungency does not trouble any- hotels, restaurants, markets and private fam- 

one. It is not a nasty smell, anyway. ilies, prices ranging from $2.50 to $4.50 per 

We have had customers from as far off dozen, depending upon quality and season, 
as Illinois write that they were quite When one begins to raise pigeons it is better i 
charmed with our story about the manure, to try to secure strains from some reliable 
and that they were saving up bags of it to breeder who has stock bred along profitable 
ship by freight to the American Hide and lines. There is a difference in regard to 
Leather Company at Lowell, Mass. This breeding and feeding qualities and results 
tannery is a branch of the Leather Trust, obtained which warrants the paying of a lit- 
which has other tanneries, so use your wits tie more at the start in obtaining more 
anc! find out which tannery is nearest you. profitable stock. The writer is in favor of 
and ship to that one. If you can find a the straight Homer, carefully selected as to 
tannery not in the trust, sell to that, if you size, shape, breeding and feeding qualities, 
wish to. If you sell to a trust tannery, the as it is well known that the Homer pigeon 
check which pays you will come from the is one of the best feeders and breeders of 
New York office of the trust, same as ours any variety, and the numbers they will pro- 
do We recommend our New England cus- duce in a year more than balance any slight 



National Standard Squab Book. 



n 



advantage that may be obtained in size. 
The breeding o£ pigeons is fascinating to 
most people. It is true there are some 
losses, but with care and some e.xperience 
in management the few losses that occur to 
the beginner may be reduced to a very small 
percentage. The work is light and not as 
exacting as in some other lines, affording a 
lucrative employment almost from the start 
to those who are not strong, as well as to 
the most robust. A flock once mated will 
give but little concern to their owner, as 
they remain constant for life regardless of 
the numbers contained in the flock, and for 
years will amply repay in profit and pleas- 
ure for the feed and care given them." 

We wish to call the special attention of 
our readers to that portion of the above 
article by Mr. Spiller where he says that the 
cost of a, pair of breeders is eighty cents a 
year. We say the cost is sixty cents a year. 
In his article, Mr. Spiller says nothing 
about keeping the pigeon manure free from 
dirt and selling it to tanneries. This must 
be done in order to hold the feed bill down 
to its lowest notch. We say that the 
manure will pay one-third of the grain bill, 
and taking Mr. Spiller's figure of eighty 
cents, and deducting one-third from it, we 
have as the net cost fifty-three cents. 

We asked one of our friends living in 
West Newton, Mass., to ask Mr. Spiller if 
his estimate of cost was made when he was 
saving the manure and selling it to tanner- 
ies. Mr. Spiller replied by letter as follows 
under date of Feb. 16th. 1903: "No, the 
manure was not taken into consideration at 
all. I do not know what the tanneries pay 
for it." 

The owners of large flocks of common pig- 
eons in the West who are breeding squabs 
for market do not sell the manure and for 
this reason they lose an important source of 
revenue. It is remarkable to us ttuit 
pigeons pay with them at all. Certainly the 
manure is a very important by-product, and 
you should figure on selling it just as ynu 
figure on selling the squabs. 

NEWSPAPER MARKET QUOTATIONS.— 
Only a few of the daily newspapers of the 
country are in the habit of printing regularly 
market quotations on squabs. The Boston 
Globe has an article about once a week for 
the information of the household and in this 
article squabs are regularly quoted. ^t 
Thanksgiving time, 1902. the Globe quoted 
squabs at from .$4 to $.5 per dozen. In the 
Globe of Feb. 14th, 1903. squabs were quoted 
at $4.50 and |5 per dozen. If our New Eng- 
land customers will buy a copy of the Friday 
or Saturday Globe each week, they will prob- 
ably find this household article containing 
the quotations for squabs on one of those 
days. 

Our customers sometimes cut from the 
newspapers quotations for squabs and send 



them to us. In the winter of 1902 we received 
a clipping from the New York Evening Sun 
of Feb. 28, 19U2, in which white squabs were 
quoted at ^o a dozen and dark squabs at 
$3.50 a dozen. We are told that the New 
York Evening Sun prints every Friday even- 
ing a household market column giving quo- 
tations on squabs. 

The Rural New Y'orker, an old-established 
and progressive farmers' weekly, printed the 
following quotations for squabs as whole- 
sale prices ruling Feb. 6, 1903: "Squabs 
prime large white, per dozen, $3.75; mi.xed, 
$2.75 and $3; dark, $2 and $2.50." 

The Albany (New York) E.\press, on Feb. 
9, 1903, printed the following quotations: 
"Squabs, native, $5; Philadelphia squabs, '$5 
per dozen; pigeons, $1.50 per dozen." 

The Chicago Tribune, on March 10, 1902, 
printed the following quotations: "Squabs, 
prime, large, white, per dozen, $3." 

The St. Louis Republic, on Dec. 2, 1902, 
printed the following quotations: "Squabs, 
white, choice, dozen. $2.75 and $3; mixed, 
$2.25 and $2.50; prime dark, $1.S7 and $2." 

The San Francisco Chronicle, on April X, 
1902, printed the following quotations: 
"Pigeons, young. $2.50 and $2.75; ditto, old, 
$1.50 and $1.75." 

SQUABS IN THE STATE OF WASHING- 
TON. — The squab raisers in New Jersey, New 
Yoi'k and Pennsylvania are very well satis- 
fled with the New Y'ork and Philadelphia 
markets for squabs, and we have done coji- 
siderable talking about the New York mar- 
ket ourselves, but let us tell you that ih« 
market for squabs on the Paeiflc Coast is a, 
flne one, too. Here in the East we think 
Seattle is a long way from home and you 
may find some city chaps around us who 
think that city is but just on the edge of 
the tall timber. If you live out in Michigan, 
Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana. Ohio. Kentucky, 
or any state in that section, you ought to 
feel pretty sure that the markets for squabs 
around you are good, after you have read 
what we are going to tell you here about the 
market for squabs in Seattle and its vicinity. 

These letters were obtained for us by a 
customer who lives near Seattle: 

Fulton Market, corner Second avenue and 
Columbia street, Seattle, Wash. (Feb. 11, 
1903): "Yours at hand and will say that if 
your birds are as you say, we can use on an 
average of twenty dozen per week at $2.50 
per dozen, feathers on." 

A. D. Blowers & Co., S17-S19 Western ave- 
nue. Seattle. Wash. (Feb. 12, 1903): "Your 
valued favor to hand regarding squabs. In 
reply will say that most of the squabs used 
in this city are brought from the east and 
held in cold storage, so that native birds 
will no doubt sell much better than thi* 
article. We have made some inquiry about 
them and find that it will be no trouble in 
selling four to six dozen a week, and no 




\'lE\V I ROM I'a.ssaiiewav. 




ViKW From Ixteriok ok Squab Housk. 



Above are two views of a model made to illustrate what we call the dowel system of feeding and 
watering. It is a great time-saver in a long house. Between the floor of squab house and the lowest 
tier of nest boxes is, one foot space. Fill tliis space with three-eigliths inch doweling set one and one- 
half inches apart, as pictured. (Tliis doweling conies in any length from a carpenter and is very 
cheap.) Set galvanized drinker and feed trough as shown. The trough has a tliree-quarter inch slot 
in its bottom so that the grains will fall into position ready for eating on the back side of the bottom 
strip into which the dowels are driven. The birds sticktlieir heads through tlie dowels to eat and 
drink, and cannot foul either grain or water. Push a wlieelbarrow with grain along the passageway 
and a house one hundred feet long can be attended to in fifteen minutes. Without this arrangement, 
if you go Into each unit pen to feed and water, you will use up at least an liour, and it will Ije harder 
work. By this metliod you need enter the breeding jiens only when killing or cleaning times come. 



National Standard Sqnab Book. 



doubt many more, as the trade would open 
up. We do not think there is anyone in 
tliis part of the country . who raises them 
for sale, and think if you can produce a 
good article that you will have no trouble 
whatever in selling them here. The price for 
eastern squabs is $2.25 to $2.50 per dozen. 
Some of the customers prefer to have them 
plucked, others alive. We think it would be 
better, perhaps, in the first shipment to 
send them alive until a regular trade was 
established. Our commission for selling 
them will be ten per cent, of the gross sales. 
If you have any nice ones, it would be well 
for you to send two to four dozen along and 
see what we can do with them for you." 

(It is better to ship squabs killed and prop- 
erly cooled. Do not send them alive to your 
market. Few butchers in the commission 
men's employ understand how to kill and cool 
a squab right. Do your own killing and cool- 
ing and packing as we have given you pre- 
cise directions and you will know (not guess) 
that your product is reaching the consumer 
in perfect condition.) 

Palace Market Co., Second avenue, Seattle, 
Wash. (Feb. 11, 1903): "Squabs such as you 
speak of would be worth 20 to 25 cents each. 
Would prefer the feathers on. We can use 
all you have." 

California Commission Company, 923 West- 
ern avenue, Seattle, Wash. (Feb. 11, 1903): 
"Your favor to hand and contents noted. 
In reply we beg to state that squabs are 
selling from $2. .50 to $3.50 per dozen, accord- 
ing to the quality of the birds. We want 
them with the feathers on and not drawn. 
You may ship us two or three dozen for a 
trial and then we will be better able to tell 
what we can do for you and see how many 
we can handle at a time. Our commission 
is ten per cent, on all goods. We are cer- 
tain that we can give you entire satisfaction 
and know that our business methods will 
please you. We make prompt returns and 
keep shippers well posted on the market con- 
ditions. Trusting to be favored with your 
further valued orders." 

C. W. Chamberlain & Co., 905-907 Western 
avenue, Seattle, Wash. (Feb. 13, 1903): 
"Yours of the 9th at hand and contents fully 
noted. Squabs, such as you mentioned, 
would sell here for about $3 per dozen. Our 
selling charge is ten per cent. Twelve to 
fifteen dozen per week could be disposed of 
from present information at hand. They 
should be shipped alive." 

J. F. Gayton. steward Ranier Club (this 
club is compo.sed of the richest men of Se- 
attle), Seattle. Wash. (Feb. 13. 1903): "I am 
in receipt of your letter with regard to 
squabs. Yes. I want some squabs at any 
time. W'ill be glad to have them. I will 
take a dozen at 25 cents each, either dressed 
or undressed, three dollars per dozen. After 
I see the first birds I can tell whether I can 
take them regularly." 



Williams Bros., Gilt Edge Cafe, Everett, 
Wash. (Feb. 12, 1903): "In reply to yours 
will say, I cannot say at present how many 
squabs I can use, but will start with two 
dozen a week, picked, at $2.50 per dozen. 
Ship as soon as you please and will look the 
market up for you in the meantime." 

Gordon & Co., commission merchants, Sll 
Western avenue, Seattle, Wash. (Feb. 13, 
1903): "Replying to your letter will say that 
we have telephoned to several of the hotels 
and restaurants here that would be apt to 
use squabs and we find that there are some 
places that make a specialty of using them 
and we do not believe we would have any 
trouble in disposing of them nicely. We 
would suggest that you send down a small 
box of them and let us show the customers 
just what they are and find out just what 
they will be willing to pay for them. They 
have been selling recently for 25 cents each. 
If you care to make this shipment, we will 
be glad to get it." 

Seattle Market, Cor. First avenue south and 
Washington street, Seattle, Wash. (Feb. 10, 
1903): "In reply to yours would say. it 
would be a good idea for you to ship us in 
two or three dozen squabs for sample, I could 
get the hotel and restaurant people's opinion 
on price and quality and be able to talk to 
you on quantity. Eastern frozen squabs are 
selling on this market lor $2 to $2.25 per 
dozen. If your stock is as you say, I think 
it would be a better seller than frozen 
goods." 

Maison Barberis, restaurant and dining par- 
lors. 204-210 James street, Seattle, Wash. 
(Feb. 11, 1903): "We will take thirty dozen 
squabs every month: have them plucked, and 
will pay you $3 per dozen. Please answer 
and say about what day of the month you 
will send them in." 

E. C. Klyce & Co., commission merchants, 
906 Western avenue. Seattle. Wash. (Feb. 13, 
1903): "Yours regarding squabs to hand. We 
have investigated the market here and find 
a good many of the first-class hotels and cafes 
will take them at very fair figures. There 
seems to be a variance of opinion as to what 
they will pay, but we presume that the sup- 
ply has been very limited, and they would 
pay just about whatever the seller would ask 
in order to get them. We think the aveirge 
price would be about $2.50 to $2.75 per dozen. 
Of course there would be some bidding 
among the different buyers in case they were 
scarce, and we might get more for them. 
We have immediate access by 'phone and 
salesmen with all our customers who serve 
squabs for short orders or otherwi.se. By 
this means you would be in close touch with 
the people most in need of them and would 
alw^iys try to get you top notch prices. We 
believe this is a good investment for you to 
grow them for this market. Of course you 
would have to start in and graduate up" to 
find how large (he volume of trade will be 




Self-Feeder for Grain. 

This trough gives excellent satisfaction witli us. We do not sell it, but will tell you how to have 
it made. It is four feet long. At the bottom of this page you will see a sectional view of it. The 
grain is put into the hopper, H. It drops in the direction indicated by the arrows into the spaces, AA, 
where it is eaten by the birds. As fast as they eat, more drops down. The strip through which they 
stick their heads is three inches wide and the slots are cut with a band or keyhole saw. The V at 
the bottom of the trough is made from a solid piece of four by four. It is solid so that rats cannot 
get inside of it and hide and pilfer the gram. The inch-square pieces at the front of the bottom 
prevent the birds from pecking the grain out on to the floor. One-inch lumber is used in the con- 
struction for every part except the slot-boards, BB, which are three-eighths inches thick. The top 
and bottom are of twelve-inch boards, the sides of ten-inch boards. The top is held in place by a 
hook and eye at each end as pictured. The trough wUl hold from three days' to two weeks' supply 
of grain, depending on the size of the flock. Put the trough not in the flying pen, but inside the 
squab house. Or, you may build a half -trough (slot-board down one side only) and set it in the 
passageway, and it will fill the space between the lower tier of nest boxes and the floor. Here it may 
be filled from the passageway, and you will not have to enter the unit pen. We have tried all kinds 
of self-feeders and recommend this pattern as the best of all. If you adopt it in connection with 
the dowel system (illustrated on previous page) your dowels will be used only behiijd the drinker, this 
trough taking up four feet of the rest of the space. Make it either longer or shorter than four feet, 
to suit the size of your flock, if you wish. 



- - 12" 




National Standard Squab Book. 15 

that we can command you on them. Any- at tliat, you to pay the express, I should be 

thing in the way of game, fowls or meats glad to have same." 

are staple sellers at good prices." Duquesne Club, Pittsburg, Penn. (Feb. 1] 

Hamm & Schmitz, Hotel Butler, Seattle, 1903J : "Wish to know, if you have squabs 
Wash. (Feb. 12, 1903): "In reply to yours, of first quality, should you have about three 
will say that we could use three dozen a dozen on hand, I would pay you per dozen 
week of the squabs and will pay three dollars squabs plucked and delivered, from $3.50 to 
per dozen for plucked birds, laid down $3.75 per dozen. If price suits you please 
here." let me know." Signed by E. Max Hein- 

The above letters indicate to us that peo- rich, superintendent, 
pie in the state of Washington who eat Lincoln Hotel, Lincoln, Nebraska. (Feb. 
squabs have to pay from $3 to $4 a dozen 16, 1903): "Replying to your letter. We can 
for the cold storage, frozen kind. Poor as use about two dozen squabs per week in our 
these are (they are the lightweight squabs cafe at present. Will pay .$2.50 per dozen 
of common pigeons) they are in active de- delivered here, feathers on." 
mand. Of course the consumers would pay as Hoted Victoria, Pittsburg, Penn. (Feb. IS, 
much, and no doubt more, for fresh-killed 1903): "In regard to your letter, will say] 
squabs bred from our fine Homers. The com- we use about one dozen or one and one-halt 
mission men are certainly eager to get dozen per week, just depends on the business, 
squabs. They are willing to pay from $2 and will pay $3.50 per dozen delivered here 
to .|3.50 per dozen. They resell them at a at the hotel." 

profit. Fred Harvey, general office, Union Depot 

The above letter from E. C. Klyce & Co. Anne.x, Kansas City, Missouri, Chicago office 
is sensible and could well be written by any Cor. 17th street and Wentworth avenue, 
commission firm in any state in the Union, (Feb. 14, 1903) : We can use 15 to 20 dozen 
or by any commission firm anywhere that squabs per week if the birds are very nice 
sells poultry, eggs and butter. Wherever and the price reasonable. Can use them with 
there is a sale for hens and chickens, dressed feathers on. Do not know what we can af- 
or with feathers on, there is a sale for squabs ford to pay, it depends entirely on the birds. 
at higher prices not only because they are If you will please send three dozen squabs 
a greater delicacy, but also because good by Santa Fe baggage car to Kansas City, 
eaters everywhere know they are a greater charging them at such a price that you can 
delicacy, and expect to pay, and do pay, more afford to furnish them, I will use them as a 
for squabs, pound for pound, than they pay sample. If the birds are not of the right 
for hens and chickens, geese and turkeys. quality and the price is too high, we will not 

We ship to Seattle by the fastest express need any more, but if the birds and price are 
trains. The birds go from Boston to St. right, we can use quantity given above. I 
Paul (Minnesota) by the Wells-Fargo Express enclose baggage car shipping bill; be careful 
Company. At St. Paul the birds are taken to fill it out correctly. This bill is made in 
by the Northern Pacific Express Company, duplicate: you hold one copy as your receipt 
which has charge of them to destination, and the other goes with the birds. Please 
Every express messenger in the employ of put the squabs in a small box with a little 
these two companies on this long route has ice." 

handled our shipments and made a fine Hotel Savoy, Ewins-Childs Hotel Co., pro- 
record, and is trained to the work of feeding prietors, Kansas City Missouri. (Feb. 16, 
and watering all sizes of shipments. Our 1903): "What is your lowest price on best 
Seattle trade can be sure that their ship- squabs in five dozen lots? We are not in the 
ments will be treated right and will reach habit of stnding out of town for our sup- 
them in perfect condition. That is what we plies, but if you have something better than 
guarantee. we can get here, it is possible that we can 

MORE LETTERS.— Here are more letters do business with you." (Signed by George 
from squab buyers, unclassified, as they came Thompson, steward). 

to us in the first part of February, 1903; Frank E. Miller, superintendent Dining 

Allyn House, Hartford, Conn. (February, Service, Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway 
1903): "In answer to yours will say we system. No. 707 Chestnut street. St. Louis, 
are continually using squabs. We buy them Missouri. (Feb. 16. 1903): "I have your 
plucked in all cases. We pay all prices, ac- favor relative to squabs. It is proper for you 
cording to size. age. and condition when re- to state the price per dozen. We occupy eight 
reived. They run from $2.25 to $3.25 per or ten large dining stations and requi'' a 
dozen. Sometimes the market is a little large number." 

higher." Hollenden Hotel. Cleveland, Ohio. (Feb. 19, 

Russell House. Detroit. Michigan. (Feb- igo,'?): "In reply to your letter making in- 
ruarv. 1903): "In reply to your letter would quiry regarding squabs I will state that we 
sav "that we use quite a few squabs here. Am are paying $3.00 per dozen for nice dressed 
paying at present $2.50 per dozen for squabs. We do not buy any unless they are 
splendid stock. If you care to send me any fully dressed, no feathers on." 



i6 



National Standard Squab Book. 



Louis A. Fisher, Manager Century Club. 
Cleveland, Ohio. (Feb. 17. 1903): "We buy 
all our squabs in New York as the prices of 
three and four dollar.s per dozen prevailing 
in this city are too high^thal is, we buy 
cheaper in New York than here." 

A. S. Barnett, steward Morton House, 
Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Feb. 11, 1903): 
"In reply to your inquiry in regard to 
■what we would pay for squabs such as you 
liave, we are paying $2.25 per dozen. Should 
you consider our price an object, would be 
pleased to learn how many you could fur- 
nish a week." 

Hotel Schenlen, Pittsburg, Penn. (Feb. 10, 
1903): "Your squabs must be according to 
the weight and you should find a ready mar- 
ket for such stock. Nice white squabs are 
bringing $3.50 today." 

Hotel Rider, Cambridge Springs, Penn. 
(Feb. 11, 1903): "We can pay you $2.25 per 
dozen for genuine squabs (no pigeons) de- 
livered here. Can use six or eight dozen 
at a time, but we do not want anything but 
young birds." 

E. A. Goodrich & Co.. commission mer- 
chants, 103 South Water street. Chicago, 
Illinois. (Feb. 13, 1903): "Your favor at 
hand. If you mean fat young pigeons that 
have left the nest and can fly, they are 
■worth 75 cents to $1 per dozen, and the trade 
■wants them alive. (This is the way the 
trade in Boston wants them, but they pay 
more). If you mean nestlings, or very young 
pigeons which have not left the nest and are 
unable to fly. we can get you $2 to $2.25 per 
dozen, dressed neatly. Either kind is good 
sale at prices named and can handle for you 



any quantity from five dozen to one hundred 
dozen. If nestling tie in one-half dozen 
bunches packed in ice and ship by express." 

A FINAL W'ORD.— Our object in printing 
the letters from marketmen and other squab 
buyers, in this appendix, is to convince any 
intelligent man or woman that there is a, 
market for him, provided he goes to raising 
squabs, no matter where he lives. We have 
hundreds of similar letters on hand, but we 
have not room to print all, and we think we 
have printed enough. If you are not con- 
vinced by what we have printed that there 
is a paying market for squabs within five 
hundred miles of you, do not -write to us and 
ask us to tell you the names and addresses 
of squab buyers in your town or city, or 
your county, for that we may not be able to 
do. but sit down at your writing desk, or go 
out in person, and find out for yourself. 

It is unnecessary to argue the squab mar- 
ket within anyone of common sense who 
lives east of the Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers, and on the Pacific coast, and within 
shipping distance of Denver. If you live in 
a barren territory or a foreign country, and 
wish to take up this subject with us, we 
will reply to the best of our ability, but 
remember that you are on the ground, and 
can find out such facts for yourself better 
than we can tell you. 

This Manual is intended to Ve a book of 
facts, backed up by evidence. If anybody has 
any additional facts as to squabs which will 
improve this Manual, we will be glad to con- 
sider same, and ■will pay for them if ac- 
cepted. 











MR 27 1006 



